Ironmax® Pro, the innovative new slug protection tool from UPL NZ Ltd, is the first slug bait to be certified by BioGro.
Mike Goodwin, UPL’s Central South Island Regional Manager, says the product builds on the success of slug baits Metarex® Inov and Metarex Micro.
Metarex Inov, itself a breakthrough product when it was launched, has been used for many years by New Zealand vegetable growers. Ironmax Pro, Metarex Inov and Metarex Micro are manufactured by French company DeSangosse, a global specialist in slug and snail bait technologies.
Mike says the organic certification with BioGro New Zealand adds to Ironmax Pro’s profile alongside positive feedback from growers internationally and two years’ worth of rigorous trials¹ in New Zealand and France.
“The BioGro certification is great news for the vegetable growing sector where there is increasing demand for products that are safer for the environment without compromising on efficacy,” Mike says.
Grey field slugs (Deroceras reticulatum) are significant pests across a broad range of crops but can be particularly challenging in lettuces and vegetable brassicas. Each slug can live for up to 13 months and produce as many as 300 eggs.
Mike explains: “Slugs thrive in our temperate climate and are active year-round with damage typically peaking in autumn and spring, especially in newly planted seedlings. If unchecked, they have the potential to wipe out an entire crop.”
The distinguishing feature of Ironmax Pro is DeSangosse’s Colzactive® technology which contains selected oil seed rape extracts.
“The DeSangosse Research and Development team evaluated 20 different plant species and identified 50 potential molecules for their attractiveness to slugs,” Mike says. “They selected two molecules from oil seed rape for their ability to attract slugs to the bait and encourage the slugs to eat the bait. These characteristics of attractiveness and palatability underpin the speed at which Ironmax Pro works compared to other slug baits.¹
Research shows slugs actively prefer feeding on Ironmax Pro to feeding on seedlings.¹
Ironmax Pro contains the optimised active ingredient 24.2 g/kg ferric phosphate anhydrous, referred to as IPMax. Iron (ferric) phosphate is a natural component of soil. It works as a stomach poison on slugs and snails and is fatal once ingested. The slug’s digestive gland (a vital organ) becomes overloaded with iron which impairs the digestion process and, ultimately, the ability to process food. Feeding stops almost immediately.
“As slugs retreat underground to die, growers should look for positive signs of crop protection rather than dead slugs,” Mike says.
Ironmax Pro is manufactured with durum wheat using a unique wet process during manufacturing to make it rainfast and less likely to disintegrate in the first shower.
Ironmax Pro is useful in integrated pest management programmes and does not impact beneficial insects such as earthworms and carabid beetles, which are slug predators contributing to the natural suppression of slugs. This makes the bait a low-hazard environmental solution.
Available in 15 kg bags, the recommended application rate of Ironmax Pro is 5 to 7 kg/ha. With 60,000 baits per kilogram, the uniform pellet size aids the bait’s ballistic profile and spreading distance which can reach a width of 24 m.
Talk to your local Fruitfed Supplies Horticultural Technical Representative for further details on Ironmax Pro.
ACVM registration numbers: Ironmax® Pro #P009801. Read the registered label before use.
1 Peracto (Staphyt) trials, 2019, Pukekohe; Cage trials, 2020, France.
