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Isoclast™ Active

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Targeting Crop-Devastating Pests in a Whole New Way

Walking into the produce section of your neighborhood market, you’ll see customers doing some pretty strict quality control, giving every item a careful once-over before adding it to their baskets. We get to be choosy because most of the fruits and vegetables available to us are of great quality. We’re not looking for the one head of lettuce that looks good, but the best one among a whole display of worthy candidates. This ability to be choosy is a luxury enabled by farmers who are perhaps even more obsessed with quality than consumers. One of the biggest threats to that quality is destructive insects, which farmers must work constantly to control in defense of their harvests.

Up to 40% of potential food production is lost to pests each year.1 Sap-feeding insects can be particularly damaging, transmitting plant diseases, depositing honeydew that affects crop quality and leaves plants debilitated. These kinds of insects, such as aphids, are notoriously difficult to control. Infestations can quickly take root, ruining whole harvests. Farmers—and consumers—are left emptyhanded. Adding to the challenge, many sap-feeding insects have developed resistance to legacy pest control products, leaving farmers with fewer options to protect our food.

Isoclast™ active gives farmers an effective, more advanced option for pest control by targeting specific sap-feeding insects in a unique way, while reducing exposure to non-target organisms and the environment. Farmers can use less active ingredient and apply it less often. Since it breaks down quickly, Isoclast has a favorable environmental profile compared to alternatives.

A Different Kind of Option

Isoclast™ active (sulfoxaflor) works in a distinct way inside target pests. Because of its novel chemical structure and metabolism in insects, Isoclast represents the only member of the sulfoximines insecticide class, with mode of action Group 4C under the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee or IRAC.2 Isoclast is not a neonicotinoid. Although it’s effective against many of the same insects as neonicotinoids, it works differently than legacy insecticides such as carbamates, pyrethroids and organophosphates. As a result of its chemical structure, Isoclast breaks down quickly in the environment, metabolizing into low toxicity substances in just a few days.

Developed to Enhance Sustainability

With Isoclast™ active, farmers can use less active ingredient on their fields, apply it less often and help prevent resistance issues seen with other products. It was designed to work in a very specific way and degrades quickly after application to pose less risk to field workers, non-target species, and the environment. Farmers need new choices like Isoclast because some legacy insecticides for sap‑feeding insects are becoming increasingly ineffective, while others are being retired from use for many reasons, including due to their environmental profiles.

Proven Profile

Scientists studied Isoclast™ active exhaustively before bringing it to market, going above and beyond regulatory requirements at the time. Studies continue today, ensuring it performs as expected for crops and the environment. When used according to the label, Isoclast presents a low risk to honeybees and other pollinators. It’s approved for use in nearly 100 countries and has been used on millions of hectares of crops.

 
 
These comparison photos from field trials show how Isoclast protects produce from insect damage.
 

Impact: Kenya Mango Project

Impact: Kenya Mango Project

20 to 40% of global agricultural production is lost every year due to pests and diseases. Learn how the Minor Use Foundation project in Kenya is helping mango growers increase yields, improve quality and raise returns on farmer investments.

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Impact: Kenya Mango Project

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20 to 40% of global agricultural production is lost every year due to pests and diseases. Learn how the Minor Use Foundation project in Kenya is helping mango growers increase yields, improve quality and raise returns on farmer investments.

What Makes Isoclast™ Active Unique?

Download the Isoclast Technical Bulletin for more details on how this uniquely effective insecticide helps farmers bring more and better crops to market. *As of April 1, 2022.

Selective action against key pests

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Isoclast™ active (sulfoxaflor) works in a specific way against specific pests. Isoclast triggers a unique interaction within insect nerve systems and is metabolized differently by target pests than other insecticides. The Insecticide Resistance Action Committee recognized this uniqueness by placing sulfoxaflor in a new sub-group, Group 4C. With this distinct mode of action, Isoclast controls pests that have demonstrated growing resistance to legacy products like neonicotinoids, carbamates, pyrethroids and organophosphates. Isoclast targets only certain insects, reducing impact on beneficial organisms like pollinators and insects that prey on other damaging pests.

Lower use rates and less persistence in the environment

Soybean aphid

Compared to similar insecticides, Isoclast enables farmers to use less active ingredient on their fields and apply it less often to control sap-feeding insects like aphids. Isoclast breaks down quickly in the environment to substances that have low toxicity to bees and other beneficial organisms.

Extensively studied for effects on pollinators

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Since the very beginning of the development of Isoclast, scientists have carefully studied how this active ingredient affects non-target organisms, including bees and beneficial predatory insects. With many years of research and millions of dollars in investment behind it, Isoclast is backed by an extremely robust database of pollinator studies. Ongoing research, as well as more than ten years on the market and use on millions of hectares worldwide, continues to demonstrate that Isoclast has a favorable profile and low risk to beneficial insects. This includes pollinators and predatory species that naturally keep pest populations low.

Knocking Down Pests to Elevate Harvests

In some specialty crops, fruits and vegetables, the tolerance for sap-feeding pests is nearly zero. Standards are so tight for some crops that the presence of just a single aphid can render a harvest totally unmarketable—a waste of food and resources. Farmers rely on tools like Isoclast™ active to protect the quality, health and economic viability of their harvests. Isoclast provides a new kind of choice for farmers—one that effectively controls costly pests but doesn’t persist in their fields or plants.

Colorful Fruits and Vegetables Display Supporting Fruit and Vegetable Farmers Learn more
Isoclast Protects Citrus Harvests in Turkey Read the full story
Isoclast Helps Soybean Farmers in Brazil Defeat Stink Bugs Read the full story
What’s in a Category? Why Classification as Group 4C Makes Isoclast Different Read the full story
Selective Action Preserves Important Pest Predators Read the full story
Isoclast™ Active Protects Produce from Aphid Damage Read the full story
IMG-AdobeStock_328826799-Corteva-Global. From Hood to Hive: Studying Pollinator Safety Read the full story
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Sustainability: Taking a Long-term View of Pest Control

Farmers are incredibly adaptable. Whether they’re cultivating fields of row crops, citrus orchards or acres of vegetables, every farmer takes on new challenges with each season, applying new lessons and ideas to meet them. New discoveries and technologies come along to help farmers do more and do it better. Developing these kinds of solutions, however, means taking a long view—considering not only what is needed today, but what farmers, the food chain and consumers will want for tomorrow. Active ingredients like Isoclast™ active, with lower use rates and reduced environmental persistence, give farmers a forward-thinking choice in pest control that combats today’s issues in the fields with longterm benefits for farmers and their land.

Our Innovation

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Isoclast has many characteristics that work toward Corteva’s commitment to advancing sustainable agriculture.

 1“Climate change fans spread of pests and threatens plants and crops, new FAO study.” Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, United Nations. June 2021. https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1402920/icode/.

2 “The IRAC Mode of action Classification Online.” Insect Resistance Action Committee. https://irac-online.org/modes-of-action/.