Source: Dominic Reisig, NCSU COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, 1/3/20


Note this article only applies to insecticides, not fungicides or nematicides.

The evidence is overwhelming. Neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatments do not provide a benefit in North Carolina. Most recently our data were used in a study across 12 years and 14 states. We concluded that there was no “support for continuing the current approach of blanket NST [neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatment] use in soybeans. On the contrary, our data suggest that this approach provides little to zero net benefit in most cases” (Mourtzinis et al. 2019). This lines up with data taken across North Carolina and Virginia. Out of 26 tests, we have never measured a yield advantage to using insecticide seed treatments. The following paragraphs explain a) why this is the case and b) mention the huge unintended drawbacks to using an insecticidal seed treatment in soybeans.

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