McKenna, C.E., & Retamales, J. 1999 Evaluation of vegetable oils for armoured scale control in kiwifruit orchards.. Acta Horticulturae (No. 498): 365-370.

Notes: [Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Kiwifruit, Santiago, Chile, 11-14 January 1999.] In laboratory tests, an emulsified rapeseed oil (erso) and an emulsified reconstituted vegetable oil (evo) were compared with a commercially used mineral oil (Sunspray Ultra-fine) for efficacy against Hemiberlesia rapax. At 2.0%, erso and evo achieved 100 and 99% mortality, respectively, compared with 92.5-95.8% mortality with 1.0% mineral oil. On kiwifruits (cv. Hayward) at Te Puke, New Zealand, applications of the vegetable oil formulations at 2% provided good control of H. rapax on kiwifruit vines (2.1 and 8.0% fruit infestation for erso and evo, respectively), equivalent to that achieved using the mineral oil at a rate of 1% (6.3% fruit infestation). In contrast, significantly higher levels of scale-infested fruit were recorded after sprays of the plant oil formulations at 1% (10.3 and 16.5% for erso and evo, respectively). All plant oil treatments resulted in high levels of fruit with phytotoxic damage and there was a significant rate effect. At 2%, the plant oils caused 63.8% of the fruit to be rendered unfit for export. No damage was observed in the mineral oil treatments. An alkylsilicone adjuvant had no insecticidal benefit, nor did it reduce the risk of phytotoxicity.