article · Insects
Whiteflies pose a serious threat to cotton production, frequently developing resistance to chemical treatments because of improper and indiscriminate pesticide use. Testing field populations across five generations of exposure revealed how rapidly resistance accumulates against commonly used insecticides. Initial field generations displayed very low resistance levels across all assessed chemicals, including bifenthrin, cypermethrin, acetamiprid, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, nitenpyram, chlorfenapyr, and buprofezin. However, sustained exposure over five generations accelerated resistance substantially. Resistance to buprofezin increased to 127-fold and imidacloprid to 86-fold, whereas cypermethrin, thiamethoxam, nitenpyram, chlorfenapyr, and acetamiprid induced moderate resistance. Bifenthrin showed the lowest increase at 18-fold. Because field populations initially retain vulnerability, these insecticides remain viable for pest management provided that growers actively rotate products from different chemical groups to prevent resistance from escalating.
Whiteflies damage major crops such as cotton, and overusing identical chemical controls causes treatments to fail. Understanding how rapidly pests adapt to specific chemicals helps agricultural managers make informed decisions. Demonstrating that current chemicals remain effective at baseline underscores the necessity of rotating insecticide groups to preserve the operational lifespan of essential crop protection tools.
These findings provide applied guidance for cotton growers, agricultural extension officers, and pesticide distributors designing integrated pest management regimes. Because the evaluated insecticides are already commercialised and in active field use, the findings on resistance accumulation can be applied immediately to farm management protocols and product stewardship guidance to prolong chemical efficacy.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Cotton is a major crop of Pakistan, and <i>Bemisia tabaci</i> (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) is a major pest of cotton. Due to the unwise and indiscriminate use of insecticides, resistance develops more readily in the whitefly. The present study was conducted to evaluate the resistance development in the whitefly against the different insecticides that are still in use. For this purpose, the whitefly population was selected with five concentrations of each insecticide, for five generations. At G1, compared with the laboratory susceptible population, a very low level of resistance was observed against bifenthrin, cypermethrin, acetamiprid, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, nitenpyram, chlorfenapyr, and buprofezin with a resistance ratio of 3-fold, 2-fold, 1-fold, 4-fold, 3-fold, 3-fold, 3-fold, and 3-fold, respectively. However, the selection for five generations increased the resistance to a very high level against buprofezin (127-fold), and to a high level against imidacloprid (86-fold) compared with the laboratory susceptible population. While, a moderate level of resistance was observed against cypermethrin (34-fold), thiamethoxam (34-fold), nitenpyram (30-fold), chlorfenapyr (29-fold), and acetamiprid (21-fold). On the other hand, the resistance was low against bifenthrin (18-fold) after selection for five generations. A very low level of resistance against the field population of <i>B. tabaci</i>, at G1, showed that these insecticides are still effective, and thus can be used under the field conditions for the management of <i>B. tabaci</i>. However, the proper rotation of insecticides among different groups can help to reduce the development of resistance against insecticides.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.3390/insects12110996
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
