How To Minimize Insecticide and Miticide Resistance

Fact Sheets > General IPM > Chemical Classes of Insecticides and Miticides

1. Use a variety of management strategies:

• Cultural -- maintain proper watering and fertility practices. Avoid stressing plants.
• Sanitation -- remove weeds, old plant, and growing medium debris.
• Biological -- parasitoids, predators, entomopathogenic fungi/bacteria, and beneficial nematodes.
• Plant Resistance -- grow (if available) insect tolerant plants.
• Scouting -- evaluate effectiveness of management strategies and determine population dynamics of pests.

2. Rotate chemical classes with different modes of activity.

3. Minimize use of persistent materials, which can increase insect/mite exposure time.

4. Minimize the use of tanks mixes. Pests may develop resistance to multiple insecticides.

5. Use materials with non-specific modes of activity: soaps, oils, neem compounds, insect growth regulators, and entomopathogenic fungi and bacteria.

6. Spot spray. This avoids exposing entire pest population to pesticide.

7. Time applications to kill most vulnerable stages. May result in the use of reduced ratesand/or less frequent pesticide applications.

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Raymond A. Cloyd
University of Illinois, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
228 Edward R. Madigan Laboratory, 1201 West Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: (217) 244-7218