Karate Insecticide, Cymbush and Selecron: Uses, Groups and Safety

Before you pick up any of these bottles, name the pest. A chewing caterpillar, a sucking hopper and a tiny thrips each call for a different tool. If you grow rice, our guide to rice insects helps you match the damage to the insect. Vegetable growers can start with thrips or hanip, mites and aphids.

Once you know the pest, the table below shows which of the three products actually lists it.

The three products side by side

The FPA list gives every product a toxicity category from 1 to 4, and a lower number means a more hazardous product. The color band at the bottom of the label follows that category, as the FPA explains in its dealer training on safe handling. Check the category and the band on your own bottle.

Karate insecticide and lambda cyhalothrin explained

Karate 2.5 EC contains lambda cyhalothrin, a pyrethroid. Pyrethroids are man made chemicals modeled on the pyrethrins found in chrysanthemum flowers. They upset the insect's nerves, which leads to quick paralysis and death.

Syngenta lists Karate insecticide for rice, corn, mango, tomato, onion, mungbean, watermelon, tobacco, cotton and cacao. On rice, the FPA list names green leafhopper, armyworm, rice bug, leaffolder and black bug. The FPA list gives a pre harvest interval on rice of 3 days. Follow the reentry time printed on your label before anyone walks back into the field.

Farmers who type insecticide Karate into a search bar usually mean this product. Lambda cyhalothrin also sits inside Alika 247 ZC, paired with thiamethoxam, which our page on Alika, Virtako and Chess explains.

Cymbush insecticide: cypermethrin for many crops

Cymbush 5 EC contains cypermethrin, another pyrethroid in the same IRAC group 3A as lambda cyhalothrin. Its FPA list covers rice, corn, cabbage, beans, tomato, onion, watermelon, banana, mango, cotton and tobacco. On rice it names green leafhopper, brown and white backed planthoppers, leaffolder, stem borer, armyworm and rice bug.

Cymbush insecticide carries a 7 day pre harvest interval on every crop in its FPA listing. The list shows it in toxicity category 4, the lowest hazard band, but a lower hazard to people is not the same as a lower hazard to fish or bees.

Selecron insecticide: an organophosphate for vegetables

Selecron 500 EC contains profenofos, an organophosphate in IRAC group 1B. Organophosphates block an enzyme the insect nerve needs, so the signal never switches off. Syngenta describes Selecron as translaminar, which means it moves from the upper leaf surface to the underside, where many pests hide.

On the FPA list, Selecron insecticide covers cabbage, eggplant, tomato, potato, watermelon, stringbeans, mungbeans, soybeans, cotton and mango. We found no rice listing. It sits in toxicity category 2, and profenofos can poison people through the skin and lungs, so treat it with real care.

Where Telluride insecticide fits

Telluride insecticide often comes up in the same conversations, but it is not a Syngenta product and not a pyrethroid. Telluride 1.8 EC comes from Aldiz Incorporated and contains abamectin, a compound first taken from a soil bacterium. Abamectin sits in IRAC group 6.

Its FPA listing covers thrips, mites and leafminers on onion, tomato, eggplant, potato, watermelon, papaya, strawberry, banana, pineapple and ornamentals, plus cecid fly on mango. The waiting time before harvest ranges from 3 days on several vegetables to 14 days on potato and papaya. Like Karate and Selecron, it is toxicity category 2.

Karate after Cymbush is not a rotation

Karate insecticide and Cymbush share IRAC group 3A. So does the lambda cyhalothrin in Alika. If you switch from one to the other against the same pest, the insects face the same mode of action every time, and resistant ones survive to breed. IRAC advises against treating back to back generations of one pest with the same group.

There is a second risk in rice. Brown planthopper outbreaks follow sprays that kill spiders, mirid bugs and water striders. Broad spectrum pyrethroids do not spare those natural enemies. So read our brown planthopper guide before you spray a pyrethroid early in the season.

Safety: protective gear and waiting days

• Read the whole label before you open the bottle, including the first aid section.
• Wear a long sleeved shirt, long pants, boots, rubber gloves and a mask while you mix and spray.
• Mix outdoors, never with bare hands, and never spray against the wind or before rain.
• Keep the tank away from fish ponds, canals and wells, because lambda cyhalothrin is highly toxic to fish.
• Write down the spray date and count the pre harvest interval before you harvest or sell.
• Wash yourself and your clothes after spraying, and store bottles locked away from children and food.

Not for ants or termites

Karate and Cymbush are crop sprays, not ant bait or termiticides. Spraying them on an ant trail or a termite mound wastes money and spreads poison where you do not need it. For ants around the nursery or termites in the bodega, read our guide to ant bait and termiticides instead.

Buy registered, keep records

Buy only from a store licensed by the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, and check the product on the FPA registered list, including the expiry date of its registration. Then keep a record. In anee.io, you can photograph the pest and ask Anee, the smart farm technician, what it is before you buy. Each spray goes on the cropping calendar with its date, and the bottle goes into the farm inventory with its price.

Questions farmers ask