Openplants: Emamectin Benzoate Follow-up Post

Besides Syngenta's Aretor®/Revive®, the following are other Emamectin benzoate insecticides available to professionals: ArborMectin, Boxer, Brandt enTREE EB, Mectinite, Tree-äge, Tree-äge G4, Tree-äge R10, TreeMec

In addition, there are brandless ones but then there's the effort needed to emulsify it.

There was a study for one year of micro emulsifier insecticide Emamectin Benzoate in two formulations: Revive® 4% and ReviveII® 9.5 % against the red palm weevil (RPW) that attack date palms. It found that RPW mortality for palms applied with Revive 4% were 67.8% (month 3) and 96.6% (month 6), and as for ReviveII 9.5% mortality were 96.3% (month 3) and 100% (month 6).
At month 12, RPW mortality for both Revive 4% and ReviveII 9.5% were 100%. The RPW mortality for control palms were 3.3% (month 3), 3.3% (month 6) and 5% (month 12).

The adults fly around and deposit eggs in palm trunks. These eggs hatch within 2–5 days resulting in legless grubs that bore into the interior of the palms, feeding on the soft tissues and discarding all fibrous material. The larval stage varies from 1 to 3 months and they pupate in cylindrical cocoons made of fibrous strands. At the end of the pupation period which lasts anywhere from 14 to 21 days, adults emerge and fly out the tree searching for a new palm and potential mates.
Hence the life cycle of the RPW is between 1.5 and 4 months.
[0.3+4+2=6.3weeks or 1.5 months]
[0.7+12+3=15.7weeks or 4 months]
If there is no decrease in mortality after month 6, it could be said that the insecticide had protected the palms from infestation by RPW that were not already inside the palms, i.e., introduction of new eggs.

However the experiment seemed dodgy as Revive 4% was applied at 48 ml/palm and ReviveII 9.5% was applied at 24 ml/palm. So there is not much difference in the amount of insecticide in these two sets of samples. In addition, not all samples were the same ones used throughout the experience, as some palms were sold by the farmer during the experiment, and new palms were introduced and injected using ReviveII 9.5%.

While the author declared that this study did not receive "any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors", he did acknowledged two Syngenta employees for "their technical support and simplifying the fund process to conduct the experiment in the right way".

Source: Mona Mohamad Mashal, Jun 2019, The efficacy assessment of emamectin benzoate using micro injection system to control red palm weevil, Heliyon Vol. 5 Issue 6

Disadvantages of trunk injection methods include:

Trunk injections cause wounding and subsequent injury, or facilitate entrance of pathogens. Note that hardwoods will eventually heal over following injection, while palms will not.
Trunk injections can be more costly and labor-intensive.
Coverage with trunk injections can be spotty throughout the crown.
With drenching, somewhat higher amounts of chemicals must be used than with injection.
Trunk injection equipment can be costly.

Source: Frederick M. Fishel, Pesticide Injection and Drenching, University of Florida IFAS Extension, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/PI/PI27400.pdf, original publication date Jan 2018