Small Application, Big Impact

A Syngenta product launched in June applies like a desiccant dust but is actually a highly palatable insecticide bait.

The result? An extremely effective, long-term control solution targeting the deepest recesses where cockroaches, ants and other pests live and breed, and where it is difficult to treat with liquid sprays and gel baits.

Advion® MicroFlow insect bait is puffed into voids with a bulb, bellows or power duster. “It really allows you to penetrate deeply into those harborages in a way that only dust formulations have been able to do in the past,” explains Eric Paysen, technical services manager for Professional Pest Management (PPM) at Syngenta, North America.

Insects like cockroaches and ants are drawn to the powder-like substance, which is comprised of fine particles of insect bait. Insects eat the bait and passively carry particles back to their colony or harborage on the exterior of their exoskeletons.

Ideal for Tough Cockroach Problems.

The bait is particularly well-suited to control cockroaches. Cockroach nymphs and gravid females harbor in deep recesses and rarely emerge to forage like other adult cockroaches. As such, they’re harder to eliminate and can cause cockroach populations to eventually rebound, resulting in callbacks and frustrated customers.

By applying bait directly into the deep voids where these cockroaches are hiding, you can eliminate the population faster. The bait is particularly effective when used for cockroach cleanouts and maintenance programs in commercial food facilities and multi-family housing complexes.

Insects find Advion MicroFlow highly palatable. The well-balanced bait matrix took more than a decade to develop. It contains food-grade attractants and all the proteins, lipids and carbohydrates that insects seek for survival.

The bait also contains a range of particle sizes. “We did that purposely. Ants, for example, like to carry around particles in their mandibles, so you want some larger particles ants will pick up and take back to their colony,” says Bob Cartwright, product development manager for PPM at Syngenta, North America.

“A finer particle works better on cockroaches,” he adds. Smaller particles stick to the exoskeletons of insects walking through a treated void. But they stick especially well to the greasy exoskeletons of cockroaches, which clean themselves through constant grooming. “They ingest so much more of the bait through grooming,” says Cartwright.

Covered in particles, cockroaches walk the bait into deep recesses where other cockroaches eat it directly off their bodies. The bait’s slow-acting active ingredient, indoxacarb, activates only after being ingested by target insects through the MetaActive^™ effect. It is transferred to nymphs eating the feces, vomit or carcasses of dead and dying cockroaches.

“We’ve documented very high rates of secondary transfer,” says Paysen.

As such, Advion MicroFlow can be used at an extremely low rate: 6 grams per 100 square feet, or about 1/5 of an ounce for a 10 x 10-foot room, to control cockroaches. “That is just amazing. That blows me away, and I’ve been in this business a long time,” says Cartwright.

The dry flowable bait can be used in combination with gel baits, liquid residual sprays, insecticide dusts and glue board traps as part of an integrated pest management approach.

Research Shows Results.

Advion MicroFlow has undergone extensive testing. In one study conducted at New Mexico State University, researchers simulated field conditions by creating wooden boxes that mimicked the voids behind cabinet toe kicks. They released German cockroaches into the boxes and used a calibrated power duster to apply Advion MicroFlow at the label rate.

“We had massive mortality of those cockroaches within 24 hours,” recalls Paysen.¹ One year later, he reintroduced cockroaches to the same treated boxes and got the same killing effect. “It’s a long-term application. You do it once and you can literally forget about it for at least a year,” he says.

Paysen plans to evaluate the bait’s effectiveness at the two-year mark and will soon begin field trials with pest management professionals. “We’re very confident this product is going to make a big difference,” he says.

Besides cockroaches and ants, Advion MicroFlow controls earwigs, silverfish, crickets, firebrats, pillbugs and sowbugs.

Scaled for Impact.

Dry flowable baits are not new to the pest management industry, but until now they’ve been an expensive niche product only available in small packages. This has kept them from being more widely used.

Syngenta has changed this dynamic. “We’ve intentionally scaled this to be used liberally in every void in the account and for that to be economically viable as a use pattern,” says Paysen.

Advion MicroFlow comes in an 8-ounce jar with a measuring scoop sized for the openings of handheld dusters. For large-scale applications, the jar can be threaded directly onto an Exacticide power duster.

PestWorld 2022 attendees can play the Advion MicroFlow cornhole game in Syngenta booth #1816 for a chance to win daily prizes, including an Exacticide duster. Visit SyngentaPMP.com/PestWorld for details and rules.

Visit SyngentaPMP.com/AdvionMicroFlow to learn more about Advion MicroFlow.

¹ New Mexico State University, PPMU21233

Visit SyngentaPMP.com/PestWorld for official rules. Manufacturers of prizes are not affiliated with Sponsor and are not sponsors of this Promotion.

Always consult the product label for complete use and application information.

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