This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

White-fringed weevil and garden weevil were sporadic pests of strawberry which could cause significant crop-damage particularly when in high numbers. Chemical control was the only effective and efficient method of control; however, there was no agrichemical product registered for use in strawberries for the control of these pests at the time.

Avatar, which was known to control these pests and which was suitable for incorporation into some IPM programs, had been available to the strawberry industry previously for weevil control via minor-use permit number 10264. That permit expired on 31st March 2010 and therefore, the product could no longer be used on strawberries.

The APVMA requested further residue data to be provided for review before it could renew the permit. Hence, this Hort Innovation (which was then Horticulture Australia Limited) project (BS11010) commissioned Crop Protection Research Pty Ltd to generate that residue data.

A study was conducted where commercial strawberry crops at four different locations around Australia including Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland were sprayed with Avatar on 2 occasions (9 and 2 days before harvest) and then harvested (0, 1, 2 and 3-days after second spray). The harvested fruit was analysed at a pesticide residue laboratory to measure the amount of insecticide that remained on and in the fruit.

The pesticide residue analysis showed that residues of the insecticide remained in all of the sprayed fruit, regardless of when they were collected. However, the amount of that residue was substantially lower than the APVMA’s maximum allowable amount residue for that pesticide at the time.

The relatively low level of pesticide measured in the fruit provided support to the minor-use permit renewal application that was submitted to the APVMA and therefore it was expected, although not certain, that a new permit would be released by around October, 2013.

A minor-use permit renewal application had been presented to the then Horticulture Australia Limited's pesticide minor-use co-ordinator (PMUC). The permit application, which was reviewed by the PMUC before being submitted to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), seeked to allow the use of DuPont Avatar Insecticide (Avatar) for the control of weevil pests in strawberry crops.