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Worldwide Development of Fipronil Insecticide

Nicholas Hamon, Richard Shaw, Henry Yang


 
ABSTRACT

Fipronil is a member of a new family of insecticides called phenyl pyrazoles and was discovered in 1987 by Rhone-Poulenc scientists in the UK. Fipronil is a versatile insecticide for use in many different markets at low dose rates whilst providing high level efficacy against target insect pests. In its eight years of field evaluation and development, fipronil has been tested against more than 250 insect species on more than sixty crops worldwide. Fipronil is effective against a broad range of insect pests of various crops, including cotton, rice, sugarcane, bananas, potatoes, maize, sugar beet and sunflower. Dependent upon crop and target pests, fipronil can be used either for foliar or soil application and, because it is systemic, as a seed treatment. Fipronil is a potent blocker of the GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) regulated chloride channel, interfering with the central nervous system (CNS). Due to its mode of action, fipronil has proven highly effective in controlling insects resistant to commonly used insecticides, diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) in particular. Fipronil is now registered in more than 30 countries for the control of a wide range of agricultural and non-agricultural pests.

Approximately 500 trials on cotton have been carried out since 1988. Trials programs have been established in Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Malawi, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, USA, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. On cotton, fipronil is particularly effective against thrips, tarnished plant bugs, boll weevil and against agricultural termites. Good activity has also been demonstrated against leafworms, bollworms, budworms and borers. Fipronil is also very effective in the control of various non-crop pests. At this time fipronil is either commercialized or under development for the control of fleas and ticks on companion animals, flies and ticks on cattle, locusts, mosquitoes, and household insects such as cockroaches, ants and termites.



Reprinted from Proceedings of the 1996 Beltwide Cotton Conferences pp. 759 - 765
©National Cotton Council, Memphis TN

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Document last modified Sunday, Dec 6 1998