What are systemic insecticides primarily used for?

Systemic insecticides are specifically designed to be absorbed by plants and distributed throughout their tissues. This property makes them particularly effective against sucking insects like aphids, which feed on plant sap. When a sucking insect encounters a plant that has been treated with a systemic insecticide, it ingests the chemical along with the sap, effectively allowing the insecticide to act from within the plant.

The ability to target sucking insects is critical since these pests often evade contact insecticides, which only kill insects on the surface of the plant. Systemic insecticides offer an efficient solution to protect plants from these types of pests by providing internal protection that persists for an extended period.

While controlling root-feeding insects, soil-borne diseases, and crawling insects is important, these pests utilize different feeding strategies and pathways that may not be effectively targeted by systemic action. Root-feeding insects typically require a different treatment approach, such as nematicides, while soil-borne diseases are often managed through cultural practices and fungicides rather than insecticidal treatments. Crawling insects like beetles usually respond better to contact insecticides since they are not primarily feeding on the plant tissues in the same way that sucking insects do.