Yellow tape formulation

The concept of pyriprox) en tape formulation and application technology is described in Figure 2. Essentially, the concept of the delivery system is to utilize the whitefly s attraction to the yellow tape formulation. Such attraction causes whitefly to land on the tape formulation and thereafter come into contact with pyriproxyfen which will result in the unhatching activity against whitefly eggs. Finally the tape formulation controls the next genereation of whitefly. 

In Japan, to control greenhouse whitefly and cotton whitefly that infest vegetables and ornamentals in the greenhouse, a yellow plastic tape formulation containing pyriproxyfen was developed. The tape has been widely used as it can lower the population of whitefly for several months after installation, and the influence on natural enemies and pollinators is low, and so forth. The action mechanism in this system is that adults attracted by the yellow color touch the tape and take pyriproxyfen into the body. The hatching of oviposited eggs is strongly inhibited by ovicidal activity via adults [38, 39]. 

Figure 3. Efficacy of Pyriproxyfen Yellow Tape and White Tape Formulations...

Sustainability of yellow color under sunlight is also an inq)ortant property of the tape formulation. By using a special coloring agent, the pyriproxyfen tape formulation showed excellent color sustainability. As shown in Figure 5, reflection spectrum of the tape formulation is not changed after 240 hours radiation by the Sunshine Fademeter (3). 

Figure 5. Sustainability of Yellow Color of Tape Formulation...

Figure 7 shows the result of efficacy test using tape formulations with different widths. The tapes with 50 mm and 100 mm width showed better control than 25 mm tape. This result suggests that the area of yellow tape plays an inq)ortant role in whitefly attraction affecting biological efficacy against whitefiy. This result is consistent with the result shown in Figure 4. 

The formulation study demonstrated that the biological efficacy and physico-chemical properties of the tape formulation are optimized by using a yellow tape containing 1 g/m of pyriproxyfen with 50 mm width and slow release characteristics (4). 

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