Beltwide '06: FMC Introduces Carbine Insecticide

FMC held a press briefing at last week’s Beltwide Cotton Conference to formally introduce Carbine, an insecticide being positioned in much the same niche as neonicitinoids. But company personnel noted that Carbine has a much different mode of action.

Instead of killing targeted pests outright, it takes away their ability to feed. In the case of plant bugs, Carbine causes the insect’s proboscis to remain limp. Without the use of this tubular mouth organ, the plant bug can’t pierce plant tissue and feed. The insect stops feeding in as little as 15 to 30 minutes of contact with the compound and quickly stops damaging plants. It essentially starves to death over a period of several days.

Carbine will be marketed for controlling both plant bugs in the east and lygus in the west. Aphid and fleahopper control also are on the label.

For scouts accustomed to finding dead bugs after a treatment, the concept will take some adjustment. FMC ran evaluations with 11 Midsouth consultants last summer, said Rusty Mitchell, and they began to get a feel for how it works.

“The numbers don’t go down immediately and may even go up temporarily if there’s a migration into the field soon after treatment,” said Mitchell, FMC's Delta technical support manager. “One Mississippi consultant called me a few days after treating and said, ‘Something is going on. The bugs are still out there, but I’m no longer finding damage.’ A consultant in Louisiana treated 3 times and kept finding plant bugs, and he was convinced that the material wasn’t working. But at the end of the season he found that cotton treated with Carbine out-yielded his standard treatment in a direct comparison.”

The active ingredient is flonicamid, which has a different mode of action than pyrethroids, OP materials or neonic compounds.

While Carbine can be used throughout the season and up to 3 treatments are permitted, its initial fit will be in the first 4 weeks of squaring, Mitchell said. Growers who use a neonic-based seed treatment must hold off using foliar treatments with that type of chemistry for up to 45 days, Mitchell specified, and that first pinhead square application would be the point to work Carbine into a pest management program.

To illustrate Carbine activity, FMC showed 2 short videos, one of an untreated plant bug feeding and the other of a Carbine-treated plant bug. The treated insect moved around more and seemed agitated, while the untreated plant bug stayed in one spot.

The presentation also included comparisons of treated and untreated insects that were placed in an electrical feeding study. In this type of evaluation, wires are attached to the back of the insect and to the plant tissue on which it’s feeding, and a weak electrical current passes through the wires. As the insect makes solid feeding contact with the plant, it completes the electrical circuit, much like throwing a light switch. The electrical flow can be measured as wave forms on a computer.

Company personnel showed one comparison of plant bugs placed on treated and untreated green beans.

The two wave tables, compressing 6 hours of feeding, showed both insects starting out with a similar feeding pattern. But after about 45 minutes the plant bug on the treated green bean quit feeding. In all, it fed for less than 1,700 seconds over the 6-hour test while the insect on the untreated bean fed for 8,100 seconds, resulting in an 80% reduction in feeding.

Plant bugs have emerged as a major pest due to less coincidental control with broad-spectrum insecticides, noted Yemel Ortega, Carbine product manager. Bt cotton and boll weevil eradication have reduced the use of insecticides that previously helped hold plant bugs in check. There is concern now that overuse of existing products will aggravate resistance,Ortega said.

“We are strongly recommending Carbine as part of a rotation program with other chemistry,” Ortega emphasized. “This is a way to take a more holistic approach. By rotating Carbine, particularly with neonicitinoids in early season, we can maintain a high level of efficacy with all products, now and in the future.”

While Ortega said pricing had not been worked out yet, Carbine would be “priced competitively” with current materials.

More information is available on FMC's web site. Click here for more details.