Control Cicada’s Biologically

1st Trial Orchard:

Did you know Cicada’s are doing this to the roots of your kiwifruit. Most people think they only damage the canes when they lay their eggs. The little blighters can live in the ground for up to six years chewing on the roots of your precious vines.

We did some trials on an orchard with Phillip Barlow and he quickly realised that the orchard in question had 160,000 of the little root suckers to the hectare. We haven’t seen any data that will quantify the damage they are doing but it can’t be good.

So far we have managed to kill them very easily in controlled conditions and been able to find dead ones in the ground but the effect on the number in the canopy was inconclusive on Phillips trial block.

2nd Trial Orchard:

One client near Katikati noticed a huge improvement in the number of shells left on the vine trunks. The average was 7 & 8 on the treated block and 30 on the untreated block. Although this is not scientific it does hold some hope for the future.
We are also trialing a new product that will interrupt their breeding cycle

3rd Trial Orchard:

5/01/2006 this orchard we have managed to dig up dead Cicada’s in the first block we ever tried Unlo2c on. This is a major breakthrough in the fight against this pest.

4th Trial Orchard:

27th/2/06 this orchard is also producing dead Cicada’s for us. The only orchards we have had this happen on, are where we used Unlo2c in the brew.