The increased use of insecticide seed treatments in rice has raised many questions about the potential benefits of these products. In 2014 and 2015, a field experiment was conducted near Stuttgart and Lonoke, AR, to evaluate whether an insecticide seed treatment could possibly lessen injury from acetolactate synthase (ALS)–inhibiting herbicides in imidazolinone-resistant (IR) rice. Two IR cultivars were tested (a hybrid, ‘CLXL745’, and an inbred, ‘CL152’), with and without an insecticide seed treatment (thiamethoxam). Four different herbicide combinations were evaluated: a nontreated control, two applications of bispyribac-sodium (hereafter bispyribac), two applications of imazethapyr, and two applications of imazethapyr plus bispyribac. The first herbicide application was to two- to three-leaf rice, and the second immediately prior to flooding (one- to two-tiller). At both 2 and 4 wk after final treatment (WAFT), the sequential applications of imazethapyr or bispyribac plus imazethapyr were more injurious to CLXL745 than CL152. This increased injury led to decreased groundcover 3 WAFT. Rice treated with thiamethoxam was less injured than nontreated rice and had improved groundcover and greater canopy heights. Even with up to 32% injury, the rice plants recovered by the end of the growing season, and yields within a cultivar were similar with and without a thiamethoxam seed treatment across all herbicide treatments. Based on these results, thiamethoxam can partially protect rice from injury caused by ALS-inhibiting herbicides as well as increase groundcover and canopy height; that is, the injury to rice never negatively affected yield.

Nomenclature: Bispyribac-sodium; imazethapyr; thiamethoxam; rice, Oryza sativa L