The EPA has granted Section 18 emergency use exemptions for Transform WG insecticide in cotton and sorghum. Transform targets sap-feeding pests including the major yield-robbers – tarnished plant bug in cotton and sugarcane aphid in sorghum.
Cotton production states receiving the Section 18s are: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and select counties in Alabama.
Sorghum growers receiving Section the 18s are located in: Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas and Virginia.
Applications for Section 18s are pending in additional cotton and sorghum producing states.
Transform has shown excellent control of tarnished plant bug, a perennially troublesome cotton pest. Louisiana crop consultant Hank Jones, with RHJ Ag Services, LLC, said the Section 18 emergency use exemptions are crucial for growers.
“Transform is a reliable insecticide that offers great control of a yield-limiting pest,” Jones said. “The reliability Transform offers for controlling tarnished plant bug is unparalleled.”
Without Transform, consultants in many areas would have to rely on multiple applications of other insecticides for control, which are less effective. Having it as an option allows consultants to implement better Integrated Pest Management plans, Jones explained.
Transform WG insecticide controls pests with both translaminar and systemic activity. It has minimal impact on beneficial insects, and will not trigger flare-ups of spider mites or cotton aphids.
“Transform offers consistent performance and an alternate mode of action desperately needed to control the most economically important cotton pest,” said Angus Catchot, Ph.D., an entomologist at Mississippi State University. “If we did not have Transform, we would rely more frequently on organophosphates and carbamates mixed with pyrethroids, which flare secondary pests, requiring even further control measures.”
