Delta cotton farmers will be allowed to use a new insecticide to fight an old foe — tarnished plant bugs.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently approved an emergency exemption that will allow the use of the insecticide Transform WG in battling the bugs in the cotton-growing regions of Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.
In Mississippi, 21 counties have been approved for use of Transform, including Leflore, Carroll, Holmes and Sunflower.
Other counties in the state where Transform WG is authorized for use include Adams, Bolivar, Claiborne, Coahoma, DeSoto, Humphreys, Issaquena, Jefferson, Panola, Quitman, Sharkey, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tunica, Warren, Washington and Yazoo.
The pesky bugs have become more and more resistant to commonly used insecticides such as pyrethroids, Leflore County Extension Agent Jerry Singleton said.
On Tuesday, state Agricultural Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith said the bug caused an estimated $81 million in combined input costs and yield losses alone in the Delta in 2011.
The states can ask the EPA for an exemption for non-labeled use of a pesticide if significant crop losses are likely or if currently labeled products are not available or effective.
According to Dow AgroSciences, the maker of Transform WG, tarnished plant bugs are especially prevalent in the Mid-South.
The company said that according to a study by Mississippi State University, 50 percent of all cotton acres nationally were infested by tarnished plant bugs in 2011.
According to Dow AgroSciences, Transform is “a fast-acting insecticide, from a proprietary, new class of chemistry that controls tarnished plant bugs. Sulfoxaflor, the active ingredient in Transform, provides cotton growers with an effective new resistance management tool.”
Singleton said Transform is “a new type of chemistry” but also is more expensive than standard insecticides.
Jim Thomas, who farms in both Leflore and Holmes counties, said the tarnished plant bug has been around a long time.
“It’s our nemesis in cotton. The boll weevil used to be the main pest 25 years ago. We wiped them out,” he said.
That regionwide boll weevil eradication program took more than a decade to complete. Farmers themselves paid the costs of that program.
Thomas says he hopes Transform will make a difference at harvest time.
“If it is as good as they say it is, it will help,” he said.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@ gwcommonwealth.com.
