A NEW APHICIDE for use in seed and ware potato crops has just received full approval by the Pesticides Safety Directorate, Bayer CropScience has announced.

Biscaya is based on a new active ingredient called thiacloprid and has activity against peach-potato aphid, potato aphid and other more sporadic aphids, the firm said.

Bayer say the product is the first from the new chloronicotinyl (CNI) class of insecticides, which means it is an oil dispersion (OD) based on vegetable oil, rather than solvents used in conventional EC formulations.

This improves dispersion across foliage and uptake by the aphid, the firm said.

It is planned to launch Biscaya in the New Year, making it available for growers for the 2006 season.