11
III.
Codacide Safeguards Integrity of Plant Protection Products (PPPs).
Codacide Oil maintains the integrity of PPPs and assists reduce factors such as volatization,
evaporation, alkaline hydrolysis, UV breakdown and photodecomposition
–
all elements that can
denature and neutralize PPPs.
Codacide Oil
’
s ability to safeguard integrity of PPPs, is perhaps best shown by its use with with
Mycoinsecticides, such as
Metarhizium
. Sp and
Beauveria basssiana
conidia that - being live
biological agents, are most susceptible to denaturing and neutralization from these elements.
A Codacide oil based formulation has key advantages over water based formulations in that:
hydrophobic conidia are easily suspended; conidia can be stored in oil without appreciable loss of
viability (by excluding oxygen and water, thereby limiting metabolic activity and enhancing
longevity); protects conidia from UV degradation (Codacide oil absorbs UV radiation and fungal
conidia are protected); enhances fungal infectivity at low humidities by maintaining moist conditions
(reducing dew dependence), which are essential for effective use of fungi in microbial control; and
protects conidia from rain wash off.
Codacide with a PH value of 7.2 also does not affect PH of spray
mixtures with Wells (1989) showing that glyphosate and water (PH 4.62) was similar to Glyphosate
and Codacide Oil (4.58).
CABI Bioscience studies (Alves
et al
1998) which evaluate the survival of conidia of
Metarhizium
anisopliae
exposed to UV light, proved that UV exposure delays germinantion of conidia.
Alves
et al
(1998) showed that Codacide Oil significantly enhanced conidial tolerance (P<0.05) against UV light
for up to 6 hrs of exposure, compared to water, water plus Cropspray, Cutinol, Actipron and Tween
adjuvants and surfactants. Codacide Oil’s natural solar filters protect conidia against UV radiation,
not interfering with germination or pathogenicity.
After exposure to natural sunlight at a UVB dose of 2.2 kJ m-2, Ghajar
et al
(2007) confirmed
Codacide Oil’s photostabilising affect on the survival of
Plectosporium alismatis
and
Colletotrichum
orbiculare
conidia.
Similarly, Moore
et al
(2008) found that exposure of
M. flovoviride
conidia in
water to UV for 1 hr resulted in only 4.7% germination after 24 hrs incubation, as compared to 36.5%
for conidia formulated in Codacide Oil.
Conidium application under field conditions is limited by the environment that can promote
moisture loss, thus limiting conidial growth and their effects.
Leemon
et al
(2008) assessed the
impact of evaporation and humidity loss and studied the effect of Codacide oil on
M. anisopliae
conidial germination and penetration, and observed 100 % mortality of
Boophilus microplus (cattle
tick)
by 2 to 5 days post treatment. These results showed that Codacide oil provided a good interface
between conidia and the arthropod cuticle, and increased conidial livability by preventing water
evaporation.
This was confirmed by Jenkins
et al
(1996) in assessing the efficacy of
Metarhizium
flovoviride
conidia formulations with Codacide Oil in the control of locust and grasshopper
populations
“where the Codacide Oil component of the formulations provided greater protection of
the conidia from environmental stresses”.
Volatility and viscosity exert an important influence on the production of droplets and whether they
will impact on their target, be it insect, plant or other surface (Barlow and Hadaway, 1974).
When a
water based spray is introduced into a warm and relatively dry atmosphere, much of the water
evaporates out of the droplets and their size is reduced rapidly, so that a considerably lower volume
than originally emitted reaches the target.
Small droplets with a high surface area/volume ratio,
rapidly evaporate in dry air (Maas, 1971).
Once on target evaporation proceeds, resulting in dried
pesticide
layering
and
neutralized
residue
deposits.
Codacide increases viscosity,
reduces
