Discovery and Development of a Novel Insecticide “Clothianidin”

It is a commonly known fact that agricultural chemicals have made a large contribution to the improvement of productivity in modern agriculture. At the same time, however, the ecological influence of such chemicals has been a matter of much concern. Furthermore, close attention is being paid to the problem of resistance in pathogenic insects, fungi and weeds because of the large amounts of limited types of agricultural chemicals used. If we limit ourselves to insecticides, there have been many reports of individual insect pests having high levels of resistance to widely used pesticides including organophosphor, carbamate and pyrethroid pesticides. Under these circumstances, compounds that are highly active for pests that are resistant to current pesticides with low toxicity to mammals and beneficial arthropods and that have little impact on the environment are preferable. Clothianidin is a new neonicotinoid insecticide possessing a thiazolyl ring which was invented and developed by Sumitomo Chemical Takeda Agro Company, Ltd. (Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd, Agro Company at the time) (Fig. 1). This compound exhibits great biological efficacy in small amounts for a wide variety of pests such as Hemiptera, Thysanoptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Diptera, and a high level of operational safety has been confirmed for grains such as paddy rice, fruit trees and vegetables. A variety of application methods, such as spraying, nursery box application, planting hole application, root application and seed application are possible as the chemical application method. In addition, as a result of safety research, it has been discovered to be an insecticide that has low toxicity for mammals, birds and aquatic species with a high level of safety.