The United States Environmental Protection Agency has registered a new insecticide, flupyradifurone, that is safer for bees. Flupyradifurone serves as an alternative to more toxic products including certain pyrethroid, neonicotinoid, organophosphate and avermectin insecticides.
As an insecticide, flupyradifurone is unusual in that laboratory-based studies indicate that the compound is practically non-toxic to adult honeybees. Studies show no adverse effect on overall bee colony performance or overwintering ability when compared to untreated colonies.
This decision was one of the first to incorporate newly-required bee studies and involved evaluating the largest number of bee-related studies ever for the registration of a new chemical. Flupyradifurone is registered for a large number of crops such as citrus, cotton, potatoes and many others to protect against piercing and sucking insects such as aphids, whiteflies, thrips and pysllids — all of which have become increasingly resistant to other pesticides and difficult to control.
The registration of flupyradifurone will provide growers across the United States with a new management tool that presents an effective countermeasure to the development of resistance. No residential uses have been proposed.
