Page 18 - Griffin Gazette Issue 3 - 2022

Q&A: Best Practices with

Ventigra Insecticide

By BASF | It has been three years since Can I drench Ventigra insecticide? quickly die after coming out of the egg.
BASF introduced Ventigra insecticide, a One of the strengths of this insecticide is Young mobile whitefly nymphs are also
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pioneering solution that provides effective that you don’t have to! You won’t need to susceptible. If older nymphs are present
control of piercing and sucking insect pests. wait up to a week for the active ingredient at application, they’ll develop to maturity,
When introducing a new solution into the to move into the plant canopy like we do but then be affected as adults and die.
market, we learn about many of the best with drenched materials. In fact, we saw We call the effect on these stages “dead
practices from you, the grower, as you use the same level and length of control on before they know it.”
the product to face real world pest pressure. green peach aphid as we did with Safari
We now share some of those conversations insecticide. This doesn’t mean you kick How can I get better results for
with you in the form of questions that are drench materials out of your program, but mealybug and scale?
commonly asked and the best practices it does mean you can get those same For these difficult-to-control pests,
that we’ve discovered and developed along excellent results with a little less labor and Ventigra insecticide controls some
the way. waiting time. species and life stages and suppresses
others. We’ve seen the highest levels of
Does Ventigra insecticide work on control come from program approaches
thrips? that include tank mixing adjuvants and
Ventigra insecticide was developed for alternating applications with Ultra-Pure
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precision: piercing and sucking pests. Oil from BASF. Oils suffocate all the life
The tradeoff with being a sharpshooter is stages of pests and they’re a key part
that you miss some other common pests, of our program recommendations for
like thrips, but that same precision allows these and other pests. Don’t be afraid of
for compatibility with non-targets, like oils! Ultra-Pure Oil is not your grandma’s
pollinators and beneficial insects. Targeted horticultural oil; modern oils are refined
chemistry is the way of the future, so and cleaner, resulting in less phytotoxicity
we create programs with multiple tools and worries about plant safety. See our
to manage all the key horticultural pests Ventigra Insecticide Rotation guide for
you’re dealing with. more information.

What about psyllids and glassy- If Ventigra insecticide is so great,
winged sharpshooters? why do I need a program?
The closer a pest is related to piercing The folks who develop insecticides are
and sucking insects like aphids, whiteflies, horticulturists like you. We want to see
mealybugs, and scale insects, the more new active ingredients work well for as
likely we’ll be able to add those pests to long as possible, so we steward the
the label in the future. We’re running trials products to protect them from resistance
now to evaluate additional pests for the developing in the field. We do this with
label. Stay tuned! Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
programs. These are guides that feature
Does Ventigra insecticide control our best solutions and the “best in show”
whitefly eggs? from trials and operations around the
We see the best control with Ventigra country. Therefore, our programs don’t
insecticide applications targeted to adults, just recommend BASF products; they
eggs and first instar crawlers of whitefly. spell out solutions to deliver the best
Treated eggs do hatch, but nymphs will results for each crop, all year long.

To learn more about Ventigra insecticide and our pest management programs,
please visit betterplants.basf.us or contact your BASF rep.