Motect 48% EC

Overview

Motect 48% EC is a chlorpyrifos insecticide from Agritas, an organophosphate. Its recorded targets span the soil line — termite, cutworm and soil insects — and the plant itself, where borers and army worm feed.

Composition

Chlorophyrifos 48%

Type

Household · Insecticide

Chemical group

Organophosphate (Group 1B)

Pack size

100 ml

Controls

Recommended crops

Mode of action

Broad-spectrum contact, stomach and vapour insecticide that blocks the insect's nerve enzyme. Highly toxic — wear full protective equipment.

Dose & application

Rate: take it from the pack. Your Haryali Markaz will confirm it against the label in your hand.

Method: follows the pest. Directed at the soil and the plant base for termite, cutworm and soil insects; on the whorl and foliage for borers and army worm. The pack says which uses are registered.

Timing: when the pest is active — cutworm at night, termite through the season, and for borers and army worm at egg-laying or early larval stage, before the larva is inside the stem or deep in the whorl. Check the label's re-entry interval before anyone goes back into the field.

Why it pays

Chlorpyrifos acts on contact, in the stomach and as a vapour, which is why it holds its place across two quite different jobs. Against termite and cutworm the value is in treating the ground and the base of the plant, where those pests work unseen and are usually met only after the damage — a cut seedling, a hollowed stem. Against borers and army worm it is the plant that is treated, at the whorl and the foliage where the larva actually feeds.

Field tips

Put it where the pest is: soil and plant base for termite, cutworm and soil insects; whorl, leaf axils and foliage for borers and army worm. Do not spray in wind or in the heat of the day. It is IRAC group 1B, so do not follow it with another group 1B product — rotate to a different group instead, and never tank-mix it with a second organophosphate.

Safety

An organophosphate: it blocks cholinesterase, and poisoning shows as sweating, vomiting, pinpoint pupils, weakness and difficulty breathing. Anyone with those signs goes to hospital immediately, with the container.

If it is swallowed, do NOT make the person vomit. This is a 48% EC in a petroleum solvent, and solvent breathed into the lung during vomiting is what kills. If it splashes in an eye, flush with clean running water for at least fifteen minutes.

Wear gloves, boots, long sleeves and a mask while mixing and spraying, wash thoroughly afterwards, and change out of the clothes you sprayed in.

Keep people and animals out of the field for the interval the label gives, and keep children and pregnant women away from treated ground. Do not use it inside a house. Do not spray a flowering crop while bees are working it, and keep it away from irrigation channels, ponds and drinking water — it is highly toxic to bees and to fish. Never re-use the empty container for anything at all.