EPA Registers Equento Insecticide Seed Treatment

Damage from belowground insects can have season-long impacts on cereal and pulse crops. The harm these pests cause can open the door to weed pressure, reduce stands and, ultimately, lower yield and profit potential. In the Pacific Northwest and Northern Plains, wireworms can have a major impact on cereal crops, leading to as much as 100% yield loss when the pests aren’t properly managed¹. This challenge led to the development of Equento^® insecticide seed treatment, recently registered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Equento, powered by PLINAZOLIN^® technology, contains a new IRAC Group 30 active ingredient that is lethal to wireworms in cereal and pulse crops. With no known cross-resistance to other insecticides and compatibility with other Syngenta seed treatments and custom blends, Equento delivers the missing piece in a pest management plan to better protect crops from a wide range of early-season pests.

Equento sets cereal and pulse crops up for a more successful season through:

• Delivering a mode of action that causes paralysis of pests and stops their feeding
• Killing pests through contact and ingestion, resulting in a kill rate of up to 97% in spring wheat²
• Helping ensure full germination potential and plant establishment
• Complementing neonicotinoid and diamide seed treatments
• Offering a stable, consistent formulation that resists leaching into the soil and reduces dust-off

Equento is the first wireworm seed treatment that is registered on both cereal and pulse crops, providing fields with continual pest management even when rotating between the two crops. In addition to its lethality on wireworms, Equento offers suppression of seedcorn maggots in pulse crops. There are currently no rescue treatments available when seedcorn maggot damage is detected later in the season, making Equento a valuable preventive solution against this pest.

Equento has been shown to increase wheat yields by an average of 115% in wireworm trials³ and pulse crop yields by an average of 79% in seedcorn maggot trials³, while improving wheat stands by an average of 58% over the base treatment alone⁴.

To learn more about Equento for your cereal and pulse crops, visit SyngentaUS.com/Equento.

¹“Seasonal population dynamics of wireworms in wheat crops in the Pacific Northwestern United States,” 28 September 2015 / Revised: 3 March 2016 / Accepted: 7 March 2016 / Published online: 10 March 2016; Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016.

²In-house Syngenta trial: OR, 2022.

³Contracted Trials, ID, MT, ND, OR, WA, Canadian provinces of AB and SK, 2015-2023.

⁴Contracted Trials, DE, ID, NJ, OR, VA, WA, 2018-2023.