Management of pesticide-resistant western flower thrips on tunnel grown strawberry

With widespread incidence of pesticide resistant strains of western flower thrips being experienced in commecial tunnel grown strawberry crops, this 2015 review identified factors leading to the success and also the failure of strategies to inform future management of the pest.

Most succesful control was found where:

• Only one year strawberry crops were grown
• Regular and well maintained predator release strategies were employed
• Pesticides harmful to predators were avoided

Control was found to break down where:

• There was a large carry over of the WFT from the previous season
• Predators were released too late
• Crop protection products harmful to predators were applied when predatory mites were being released

This information was last updated in 2015.