Pyrifluquinazon is a new active ingredient for the management of sucking pests, such as aphids, thrips, whiteflies and more. Its mode of action is to halt insect feeding so that they starve.This prevents additional damage to plant tissues and limits spread of viral diseases. Pyrifluquinazon was initially registered in Japan in 2007, and Nichino America is planning on submitting the US registration package in 2010. IR-4 started including pyrifluquinazon into the efficacy testing program in 2006. Pyrifluquinazon demonstrated efficacy on several scale species including Melanaspis deklei, euonymus scale, and false florida red scale, but the level of efficacy did vary among species and between experiments. Pyrifluquinazon provide some reduction of western flower thrips immatures but this was highly variable from some suppression to little impact. For chili thrips, pyrifluquinazon did provide excellent efficacy through 20DAT. No significant phytotoxicity was observed.
