WINNIPEG, Manitoba • Companies that make bug-killing chemicals and natural remedies are racing to take advantage of restrictions on neonicotinoids, a type of insecticide popular with farmers but blamed for harming bees and mayflies.

Global sales of neonicotinoids, or neonics, were $3.01 billion last year, accounting for almost 18 percent of the global insecticides market, according to consultancy Phillips McDougall.

Insecticide sales fell sharply year-over-year, partly because of a 2013 European Union ban on some neonicotinoids.

The restrictions are expanding in parts of Canada and the United States.

Ontario, Canada's biggest corn-growing province, is phasing in regulations by 2020 that force farmers to prove they have insect problems before using neonicotinoids, because of high rates of bee deaths. The Canadian government said last month it would phase out the neonic imidacloprid, made by Bayer AG, because it harms aquatic bugs.

That trend opens the door for companies with alternatives, such as Syngenta AG, Dow Chemical and DuPont, as well as smaller companies with cutting-edge biological techniques. Syngenta also makes neonicotinoids.