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A rapid, sensitive and effective supercritical fluid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometry (SFC-MS/MS) method was developed to analyze thiacloprid for the first time. The SFC-MS/MS conditions were optimized with the ultra-performance convergence chromatography (UPC 2 ) BEH column (100 mm × 3.0 mm, 1.7 μm particle size) and thiacloprid was eluted at 1.22 min in gradient mode with CO 2 /methanol as mobile phase. The 0.1% formic acid in methanol ( v / v ) was used as postcolumn compensation solution to improve sensitivity. The ABPR pressure, flow rate of mobile phase and flow rate of compensation pump were set at 1800 psi, 1.8 mL/min, and 0.1 mL/min, respectively. The average recoveries of thiacloprid in soil at four spiking levels (5, 10, 100, 1000 μg/kg) ranged between 78.8% and 107.1% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) lower than 12.2% and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 5 μg/kg. The proposed method can distinctly improve the analysis efficiency by 2–12 times and reduce the solvent consumption by 5%–95% compared with reported methods. It was applied to investigate the dissipation rates of thiacloprid in greenhouse vegetables and soil under different application modes. The half-lives of thiacloprid in cucumber and soil were 9.55–20.44 days and 3.74–9.14 days separately under different application modes, 10.60 days in tomato under foliar spraying. The residues in vegetables under root irrigation were all less than that under foliar spraying. The results could offer useful data for risk assessment of thiacloprid in agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]