Combating resistance to aphicides in UK aphid pests

The project, which is supported by the CRD on behalf of Defra and Industrial parties, will continue research on aphicide resistance management for the UK farming industries.

It will provide up-to-date information for agronomic and regulatory procedures; and the need for this work is heightened by the recent occurrence of control failures with neonicotinoids against Myzus persicae in southern Europe. The appearance of these resistant aphids at an initial hotspot and their establishment and spread mirrors the evolution of MACE resistance (to pirimicarb) in M. persicae in the 1990s (which caused control failures in the UK within a few years), and highlights a substantial new threat to aphid control in this country. The presence of resistant aphids in the UK would have very serious repercussions for neonicotinoid treatments on potatoes, sugar beet (particularly as there are no current viable alternatives to neonicotinoids on this crop), oilseed rape, other brassicas, salads and ornamentals. It would, in turn, accentuate the risk of the evolution of resistance to non-neonicotinoid compounds such as pymetrozine and flonicamid.