If acetamiprid found a place in the public debate during the debates on the Duplomb law, we know less about flupyradifurone. Like the first, this powerful insecticide, banned in France since 2019, could be reintroduced via the agricultural emergency law passed by the National Assembly this Tuesday, July 21, 2026. A victory for the Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard, but which could lead to the resignation of her colleague in charge of ecological transition, Monique Barbut, opposed to this legislation.
The text now only awaits a compliant vote from the Senate, which should be decided at the end of the day, to be definitively adopted. The two molecules concerned, acetamiprid and flupyradifurone, could then be reintroduced for a handful of sectors in difficulty. If the use of acetamiprid would remain limited to hazelnut farms, flupyradifurone could be used by exemption for beets, apples and cherries, by decision of ANSES.
Getting rid of insects by paralyzing them
Marketed since 2015 under the name Sivanto by the Bayer laboratory, flupyradifurone does not belong to the neonicotinoid class, unlike acetamiprid, but has similar characteristics. Like them, this butenolide insecticide is said to be systemic, that is to say it penetrates inside plants and presents significant toxicity. Bayer specifies, on the product presentation page, that it acts by disrupting “neurotransmission and, consequently, the functioning of the nervous system”, which has the effect of killing the insect by paralyzing it. “Flupyradifurone acts against both adults and larvae,” we can also read.
Intended for use in crops, particularly apple trees, strawberries, raspberries, vines, tomatoes, cucumbers or potatoes, it aims to eliminate aphids, whiteflies and other leafhoppers, pests which can be vectors of disease and therefore cause widespread damage. Flupyradifurone effectively fulfills its role, but not without causing collateral victims.
Like its cousins the neonicotinoids, it presents a danger to pollinators, particularly certain bees. If the scientific studies concerning it are fewer in number than those relating to acetamiprid (some 4,000 compared to 30,000 according to a census by researcher Philippe Grandcolas), they remain worrying. The state of knowledge also led, in 2019, to the ban on the use of this insecticide on French territory due to its proximity to neonicotinoids already banned since 2018.
In 2024, a study demonstrated that the application of flupyradifurone as recommended resulted in 100% mortality in solitary bees within three days. Bees exposed to the pesticide later in the experiment survived, but for less time than control bees not exposed to it. The same experiment also highlighted the undesirable effects in terms of nesting and foraging in exposed bees.
The risk of affecting the quality of drinking water
On the other hand, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) estimated, in an evaluation file published in 2016, that this insecticide presented a “low” risk for organisms living in soil and water, but a “high risk” of exceeding the drinking water quality threshold. However, its use remains approved at European level and will continue to be so until June 2029 – subject to authorizations specific to each Member State.
Faced with what the FNSEA perceives as a situation of unfair competition, the president of the General Confederation of Sugar Beet Planters assures that the re-authorization “in a targeted and supervised manner” of flupyradifurone represented “an essential condition for our competitiveness when all the lights are red”. The spokesperson for the Peasant Confederation, on the other hand, sees it as a project which goes “against the grain of history and the answers that we must provide to peasants”.
