The Helicoverpa insecticide resistance project continues a long-term, pre-emptive monitoring program. Resistance data produced feeds directly into a process driven by the Transgenic and Insecticide Management Strategy (TIMS) Committee, the peak industry body responsible for formulating the Insecticide Resistance Management Strategy for cotton.

In addition to ongoing monitoring, key project highlights included:

1. use of innovative pheromone trapping for insecticide resistance surveillance – an approach that allows increased sampling from geographically discrete populations and hence greater statistical power for interpretation;

2. identification of genetic resistance to emamectin benzoate, chlorantraniliprole and indoxacarb and variation between geographic locations;

3. the development and implementation of management strategies to delay the development of resistance to key selective Helicoverpa spp. insecticides that are currently at high risk from over-reliance in grains production systems;

4. use of Texas / modified Unitraps to improve the quality of moth samples; and

5. isolation of a strain (UN1U3-10) with a different mechanism of indoxacarb resistance suggests a diverse molecular basis of indoxacarb resistance in H. armigera.