The Rural Voice, 1985-01, Page 15and totally unexpected. Amaze had
been outstanding in research trials in
recent years, but it wasn't the only
rootworm insecticide with erratic or
poor results. There were variable
results with Dyfonate, Lorsban
Counter, Mocap, Furadan, and
Thimet.
Amaze is not recommended for
rootworm control in 1984 according
to University of Illinois entomologists
and Mobay, the manufacturer; it has
been taken off the market until they
can pinpoint the reasons behind its
failure in 1983.
As a result, Amaze joins the list of
rootworm insecticides that either
have been suspended by the U.S. En-
vironmental Protection Agency or
dropped from the University of Il-
linois Extension Entomology list of
suggested rootworm soil insecticides.
The history begins in 1965, when
the University of Illinois dropped
aldrin and heptachlor from their list
of suggestions to control the western
rootworm (later, in 1974, USEPA
suspended the manufacturing of
aldrin for agricultural purposes, and
in 1976, heptachlor for use on corn).
The story continues with DiSyston,
dropped by the University of Illinois
in 1967, Diazinon, dropped in 1968,
Butex in 1973, Dasonit in 1975, and
Amaze in 1984.
Since 1975, poor control with
Furadan, a carbamate, has been
noted in Illinois. This has occurred
almost exclusively in fields where
Furadan has been used for several
consecutive years or in fields where
control has been poor.
Looking closer at the history of
rootworm-insecticide failure,
Nebraska entomologists, in 1959,
four years after the first use of aldrin
and heptachlor, identified popula-
tions of the western corn rootworm
resistant to the insecticides. In 1962,
Illinois entomologists reported
resistance of some populations of
northern corn rootworm to the two
insecticides. By 1964, western corn
rootworms were first discovered in
Rock Island County, Illinois, and by
1980, the western corn rootworm was
present in every county in the state.
Now, aldrin and heptachlor are no
longer in use.
These insecticides were used so
much that they lost their effec-
tiveness. It's like the baseball
manager who goes to the bullpen and
calls on the same pitcher each time.
Suddenly the pitcher loses his stuff
and he's no longer a puzzle to oppos-
ing hitters.
The precedent of resistance and
reduced effectiveness of pesticides
was not set with rootworm insec-
ticides. In the Cotton Belt, the
overuse of insecticides against the
boll weevil not only made the boll'
weevil resistant to some insecticides
but it wiped out all the natural
predators of the boll weevil, creating
a secondary pest problem.
Hessian fly can also evolve to the
point where it is able to damage
previously resistant wheat varieties.
The lesson in all of this is that you
can only fool Mother Nature for so
long.
In the future, growers are going to
have to use the concept of IPM to
avert a potential rootworm insecticide
control "crisis." IPM concepts that
growers should consider for the corn
rootworm are:
• rigorous, "religious" field -crop
scouting - not all fields of corn
-after corn will have a root -worm
problem,
• crop rotation,
• rotating classes of insecticides
-follow a carbamate with an
organophosphate but avoid stick-
ing with one class of insecticide.
Mervyn Erb is Crop Production
.Specialist at Hen.call Co-op.
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I A N 1 ,1 R Y 1985 13