Jun 19, 2019

Sym-Agro markets an insecticide ‘synergist’

Visalia, California-based Sym-Agro is marketing a product for making tank mixes of insecticide more effective on fruit and vegetable plants.

The product, brand name ALLUMA, is a high-potency broad-spectrum, plant-based essential oil that acts as an insecticide, insect repellent and miticide, according to a press release from the company. The product is being marketed as compliant with the organic program – Sym-Agro has uploaded a certificate issued by the Washington Department of Agriculture.

“ALLUMA is an innovative formulation that works as a contact repellent and trans-laminar product, as well as a feeding and oviposition deterrent,” Sym-Agro President Peter Bierma said in the release. “It performs best as a synergist added to growers’ existing insecticide programs to target hard-to-control pests like mites, thrips and lepidoptera.”

ALLUMA works on contact through interference with the sensing faculties of pests, disguising the odor signal emitted by crops and thus preventing females from laying eggs, according to Sym-Agro’s release. It also has a direct effect on the pest, acting through ingestion as a chitin inhibitor. ALLUMA’s trans-laminar effect (being absorbed by the leaf tissue) contributes to the control of mites, thrips, lepidoptera and soft-bodied insects.

Trial work with Cinnerate and azadirachtin insecticides has shown a high synergy and increased pest spectrum and control, according to the company.