IRAC US

US Committee

Chair: Graham Head, Monsanto
Secretary: Caydee Savinelli, Syngenta

Highlights of the ESA IRAC US sponsored symposium 2008

Entomology without Borders - The Next Stage in Resistance Management

Summary
The IRAC-US sponsored symposium "Entomology without Borders - The Next Stage in Resistance Management" was held at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America in Reno, Nevada, U.S.A. As a global community with free trade around the world, there are more opportunities for invasive insects to be transported across borders. One of the challenges is to find ways to manage insects that are either non-native or have developed insecticide resistance prior to border crossing. The objective of this symposium was to discuss how to manage resistance of invasive insect species.

Ron Stinner and Karl Suiter, NSF Center for Integrated Pest Management gave the first talk of the symposium which was titled “Information Systems and Intelligence Analysis Critical to APHIS Agricultural Safeguarding. APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) is concerned about pests that will enter the U.S. There are many databases with lots of information about pests that have entered the U.S. and the challenge is to find ways to share this information in a timely manner. A good resource is www.safeguarding.org.

Tony Shelton, Cornell University gave a talk titled “The Resistance - A Never Ending Story”. There are many potential opportunities for Plutella xylostella outbreaks in the U.S. and the question is how does the grower or consultant learn about these outbreaks and act upon this information. Local newsletters and monitoring at the point of introduction are two good ways to disperse information. It is also important that the grower is spraying the population when it has reached an economic threshold level rather than on a calendar approach.

Shelby Fleischer, Penn State University and Bill Hutchison, University of Minnesota gave a talk titled “Helicoverpa zea: tracking movement and addressing resistance of an annually re-invasive migrant”. A number of cooperators across the U.S. track the movement and susceptibility to pyrethroids of H.zea. Penn State gives this information via Pest Watch which allows the growers and consultants to know the movement over a large area. This can be accessed via www.pestwatch.psu.edu

Scott Ludwig, Texas A&M University spoke about “Ornamental pest management on a global perspective”. One of the biggest challenges in working with ornamental growers is to have them admit they have a problem that needs to be addressed. With the concern of inspection and shipping their plants around the world, the growers do not want to bring negative attention to them. This is challenging when it comes to invasive species such as the Chilli thrips and the Q variant of Bemisia tabaci.

Peter Ellsworth, John Palumbo, Al Fournier and Yves Carrière, University of Arizona gave a talk titled “Beyond Field Borders: Cross-commodity Resistance Management of Bemisia tabaci - Spatial Evaluation of Group Adoption of Neonicotinoid Guidelines”. A survey was conducted that measured how well the resistance management programs in Arizona were followed by growers for Bemisia tabaci. In many instances, the growers did an excellent job in adopting the program. There have been fewer problems with Bemisia since the guidelines were initiated.