06/17/08 Clutch for Pears

Clutch for Pears. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Spring is here and with it the lovely flowers and of course the bugs. One bug is a pest for pears. The pear psylla can easily get out of hand. WELCH: People have found over the years that there really are no silver bullets, that it's a management approach that starts really while pears are dormant and then continues through the season and then even to post harvest. That's Len Welch with Valent USA. He says thanks to a new product from Valent, you can get the upper hand. WELCH: Clutch is really an excellent adulticide but primarily for control of nymphs. Clutch fits very nicely into this post bloom period for control of young psylla. At this period of time it's fairly easy to get very good control. Clutch insecticide from Valent has been tested by WSU and is proving to be very effective. WELCH: Clutch has been recognized by the university as probably being the  or one of the most active neonicotinoids. Clutch has one other advantage and has been used for this as well as that it can be used up to within seven days of harvest and it's very active on psylla at this period. Clutch is formulated as a 50% wettable powder and is applied at a rate of about 100 gallons per minute. For more information, be sure to talk to your local Valent dealer. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.