Integration of alternatives to carbamate and organophpsphate insecticides with newly released peanut cultivars for thrips and tomato spotted wilt virus management

Thrips and thrips-transmitted Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) are major constraints in peanut production.  An integrated management strategy encompassing insecticides such as aldicarb (Temik^®) and phorate (Thimet^®), cultural tactics, and TSWV-resistant cultivars is currently employed to manage thrips and TSWV.  However, aldicarb and phorate are older insecticides and they possess broad-spectrum toxicity and induce undesirable non-target effects.  Also, production of aldicarb was halted in 2011, and its usage will be stopped by 2018.  On the other hand, newly released cultivars possess more field resistance to TSWV than previously released cultivars.  None of the TSWV-resistant cultivars released so far are resistant to thrips.  Therefore, it is still critical to manage thrips on peanuts by using insecticides.  However, with appreciable levels of TSWV resistance in newly released cultivars, it might be possible to replace carbamate and organophosphate insecticides with insecticides that possess a narrow toxicity spectrum.  We evaluated eight alternative insecticides and three application methods against thrips and TSWV in 2013.  Georgia-12Y, a newly released cultivar with field resistance to TSWV was planted.  Results indicated that neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid (Admire^®Pro) and others such as spinetoram (Radiant^®) were as effective as aldicarb and phorate in suppressing thrips populations, reducing thrips and thrips feeding damage.  Results suggest that it might be possible to replace carbamate and organophosphate insecticides with alternatives such as neonicotinoids without compromising yields.  Experiments are in progress to further validate the usefulness of these insecticides as alternatives to aldicarb and phorate in the greenhouse and laboratory.