The Environmental Protection Agency has granted an exemption to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to permit the sale of the insecticide Dinotefuran for limited agricultural use on apples and peaches, according to a statement released from Rep. Frank Wolf’s (R-VA-10) office today.
Asian stinkbug (Pentatomidae: Halyomorpha halys)
The congressman is part of a coalition of House of Representatives members that has been pressing the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to find a means of combating the brown marmorated stink bug. After having talked with a number of local farmers and growers, Wolf became convinced a permanent solution was needed to avert potentially devastating economic injury to crop producers.
In recent years, the invasive Asian pest has increased its range across the country, now present in more than 30 states, with ensuing damage to commercial crops, notably to apples and peaches. The stink bug has no natural predator in this country, although a wasp, which is used to control it in China and other Asian countries, is currently being studied at the University of Delaware.
Field research has shown some success in combating the bug through the use of Dinotefuran, Virginia Tech entomologist and researcher Christopher Bergh said during a forum in Purcellville hosted by Wolf several months ago. There he described efforts to get the toxin approved for limited use. Bergh has been working with VDACS on the Dinotefuran application.
The EPA action came as a result of a request by the Commonwealth of Virginia to allow a temporary exemption for use of the regulated toxin under provisions of Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
Dinotefuran already is approved for commercial pesticide control for some other agricultural products, including melons and grapes. The EPA’s action clears Dinotefuran to be used by farmers and growers in Virginia and elsewhere in the region for stink bug control on stone and pome fruit, effective Oct. 15.
The EPA also issued guidelines for the use of the product to guard against unintended consequences of the pesticide, including its toxicity to honey bees. State agriculture officials will assess the effectiveness of Dinotefuran in controlling the pest, as well as monitor closely any impacts on the ecosystem, and work closely with the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to find additional solutions.
Read more at Leesburg Today
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Related:
Industry’s war on nature: ‘What are the bees telling us?’ Food Freedom, 10 Apr 2011
A Perfect Storm of GMOs, Chemicals and Cancer, Food Freedom, 10 Mar 2011
EPA Factsheet on Dinotefuran
Food Freedom 
Yes, why use someting senceable like a wasp or natural Neem herbacide (that actually degrades and is harmless to bee’s pastebin.com/ZzMsUzKG) when we can use someone’s scientific atrocity sure to turn a bug into a Frankenstine monster. Kinda like killing a fly with a nuclear beam when a flyswatter would do. Given time we will all be afraid to go out into the desert for fear of running into a boxcar size Asian stink bug. Oh, wait a minute, we could train stink bug to fly over to the EPA and USDA and do us all a big stinking favor.
Doc Blake
Maybe there is hope for you stink bug phobes after all!
Sorry Dr. but “natural” products are useless. It’s time for something toxic and swift. I don’t have to guess that you aren’t affected by the stink bug at all. What a shock. Why don’t you move to Allentown and live in a stink bug house for a few months and come back and revisit your ridiculous comments again.
Here is something enlightening for you John, it is just a few excerpts from an article about an attempted patent grab by one of those companies we all love to hate. “W. R. Grace” and the American people’s friend the U. S. Department of Agriculture (a clear example of fascism) took out a patent on the herbicidal qualities of the Neem Tree Seeds. Because Grace knew the value of this natural herbicide Neem they tried to lock it down with a patient (called Piracy by Patent) so no one else could use it while they sold their poisonous garbage to the brain washed and gullible.
From the Article: More than 200 organisations from 35 nations challenge US patent on neem, http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/neem-ch.htm
”MORE than 200 organisations from 35 nations have mounted an unprecedented legal challenge in the US Patent and Trademark office against a patent granting the multinational chemical corporation, the W R Grace Company, the exclusive use of a pesticidal extract from neem seeds. The global coalition challenging the W R Grace patent has been organized by Jeremy Rifkin and The Foundation on Economic Trends in the United States.”
“The neem tree’s value as a pesticide has been known to Indian villagers for hundreds of years. Villagers have developed several ways of extracting the neem’s pesticidal emulsions without expensive equipment. Typically, they break down the seeds and soak them overnight in water, alcohol or other solvents. The emulsions float to the surface and are then placed directly on crops as a pesticide and insect repellent. Villagers have never needed to store pesticidal compositions because they usually apply the emulsions the following day.”
“Despite the simplicity of these traditional methods, the pesticidal compounds obtained are extremely effective. They ward off approximately 200 insects, including locusts, nematodes, boll weevils, mosquitoes, beetles and hoppers. Moreover, these compounds are just as potent as pesticides derived from more sophisticated methods. In fact, several studies have demonstrated that compounds derived from these traditional methods are as successful in warding off pests as synthetic insecticides like malathion, DDT and Dieldrin.”
India Wins Landmark Patent Battle Against W.R. Grace’s, 19 Nov 2008
Corporation’s attempt to patent nature/2000 year-old indigenous knowledge is rejected by European Patent Office, reclaimdemocracy.org/articles_2005/grace_loses_neem_patent.php
Doc Blake
John, go educate yourself. These “swift” toxins are what cause CANCER in humans….hmmmm bugs or cancer? I’ll take bugs.
“You are sorry but natural products are useless”, common John is that the best you can do, YAWN?
Spray the stink bugs in your house with anything you like John, from your tone I would say you have inhaled plenty of toxic and swift poisons. Just don’t ask the rest of us to put up with insecticide’s like Dinotefuran, see our bee populations disappear or eat produce sprayed with it. Or not complain while government departments and A– Kissers like Rep. Frank Wolf hold hands with business so they can make a quick profit.
Doc Blake
cant stand stink bug hope EPA action give homeowners some relief i live in Maryland and for the past 3 years i noticed a couple each year but they were never in my home , last year 2010 they were everywhere cant kill or even look at them hope they are much less this year i am going to buy the trap and hopefuly i works , i was living in Egypt and we never had something like this only cockroaches and which you easily can get rid of , dont mind using anyt chemichals as long as they work , these stink bugs are destroying my life cant go out
Balanced approach from EPA? THINK NOT.
Wolf may get his wish; this may be enough stress on what is left of east coast bee colonies to make the temporary solution permanent. Prolly the same place the environment will be as a result of using these neurotoxins which become systemic in the plant, fed up into the flowers as nectar, killing bees and other pollinators and residing in the fruit. The “lethal insecticide” is a Neonicotinoid class insecticide designed to short circuit the central nervous system of insects. The use of this class of insecticide for stink bug eradication was restricted due to a probabilistic connection to honey-bee colony collapse disorder. And yes Monsanto was busted for hiring its own third party study which was accepted by EPA – Can you say conflict of interest. The study then showed under very controlled unrealistic unscientific methodology designed to show no harm to pollinators and was specifically nondetrimental to bees – what a laugh. Ask Wolf if he understands the water fall effect of the use of this insecticide to pollinators that are responsible for the fruit being available in the first place. Get rid of the pollinators and you stop the production of fruit. There’s your fix Wolf, and EPA can take credit. Duh!
On NEEM, yes Neem works as do pyrethrums prolly the safest of insecticides for use in food plants; despite it too is a neurotoxin, but one demonstrated as high biodegradable. Neonicotinoid compounds on the other hand have demonstrated to persist several years and residues have been detected in plants for SEVERAL YEARS following initial applications.
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