Fruit spotting bug has cost a Queensland macadamia and avocado enterprise millions of dollars during the past 16 years, however broader use of insecticides and other techniques is helping to win the very expensive battle against the pest.

Lyons Farming managing director Joe Lyons, whose business is based near Bundaberg, understandably said fruit spotting bug is enemy number one due to the potential crop damage.

However, ‘adding another tool to the toolbox’ is arresting the problem.

“We like to use different insecticides with different modes of action to help break the insect breeding cycle and we have added Trivor into the chemical rotation in the past three years,” Mr Lyons said.

Developed by ADAMA Australia, Trivor combines acetamiprid and pyriproxyfen, two highly effective active ingredients from the 4A and 7C insecticide groups, and in addition to its rapid knockdown and residual control of fruit spotting bug, it also targets scale and mealybugs in macadamia crops.

Trivor can also be used in avocados, mangoes, citrus and grapes against a range of pests.

It offers good compatibility and, as a result, Mr Lyons said it was definitely used with other chemicals, which also assists resistance management.

Other techniques employed to help minimise insect populations have included opening up crop canopies, thereby allowing insecticide treatments to work more effectively.

“It’s quite hard to quantify the effectiveness of chemicals because each year is different, however we have found we are meeting the KPIs (key performance indicators) in our production,” he said.

“We are solely growers here, so it’s very important that we have clean fruit and we are finding that Trivor is a good mix in our weaponry.”

He said another attractive feature of Trivor was the fact it helped to reduce the impact on beneficial insects.

“We are firm believers in IPM (integrated pest management) and we like Trivor because it targets certain species without wiping out all of our beneficial insects.”

“When you are involved in IPM, you need to change your chemicals and you need to be very targeted and I see the cost-effective benefit of using Trivor for this.”

At Gin Gin, west of Bundaberg, John Warren, Makhoma Farms, said he had really noticed the knockdown benefit with Trivor and its lasting effect against fruit spotting bug.

“It lasts a lot longer than a lot of other products, that’s for sure,” Mr Warren added.

“Fruit spotting bug is very damaging and if we don’t control it, a lot of damage comes through the shed.

“We are very happy with the results Trivor has shown in the field and in the packing shed.”

He said its excellent compatibility also allowed it to be used with fungicides without any adverse effects and it definitely was a softer chemical on beneficial insects, including lacewings, spiders and assassin beetles.

ADAMA Australia also recently conducted a fully replicated trial featuring Trivor in the region, located on a commercial macadamia farm near Childers.

The trial assessed Trivor’s efficacy against fruit spotting bug, as well as its impact on beneficial insects, compared with existing standards and developmental insecticides targeting the pests.

The trial involved a three-spray program and Trivor provided excellent control that was comparable and, in some cases, significantly superior than alternatives.

“The site was under high pressure from fruit spotting bug, and, also compared with untreated areas in the trial, Trivor applications resulted in significant improvement in kernel recovery,” said Jim O’Connor, ADAMA Queensland market development manager.

Beneficial insects, including spiders, lacewing and other general predators, were monitored across the applications and compared with untreated areas of the orchard 21 days after the final treatments.

“Trivor compared extremely favourably to other applications for total beneficial insect disruption measured at the conclusion of the trial,” Mr O’Connor said.

“Trivor treatments showed similar predator numbers to some applications and significantly more than others. It demonstrated a better IPM (integrated pest management) profile than some of the leading standards against fruit spotting bug.”