Assaying the potential benefits of thiamethoxam and imidacloprid for phylloxera suppression and improvements to grapevine vigour

Abstract

Grape phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Fitch) is an encroaching problem for the Australian wine industry with four new outbreaks recorded in the past 5 years. Whilst quarantine- and phylloxera-resistant rootstocks are the recommended long-term management strategies, there are at present no short-term options for recently infested vineyards. In this study, an assay for assessing the impact of the systemic insecticides thiamethoxam (Actara®; two applications at a concentration of 2000ppm active ingredient) and imidacloprid (Confidor®; one and two applications at a concentration of 2000ppm active ingredient) on suppression of phylloxera populations on grapevine roots was developed. Result..