Understanding and developing a response to bluegreen aphid resistance to chemical controls
Lucerne and other legume crops can suffer significant damage from bluegreen aphids (BGA) directly feeding and spreading harmful plant viruses. In the past, growers have successfully protected their crops from BGA by spraying insecticides that efficiently control these aphids. However, our recent research revealed some BGA populations have evolved resistance to many of the chemicals registered and routinely used to control them. While the evolution of insecticide resistance is a reasonably common occurrence in some species of crop pests (e.g., green peach aphids), the insecticide resistance we have detected in BGA here is the first of its kind in this species. In our preceding project, we outlined short-term management tactics to help growers manage insecticide-resistant BGA. However, short-term recommendations cannot provide sustainable long-term solutions that growers need to sustainably manage insecticide-resistant BGA. This project seeks to contribute to the development of long-term management guidelines aimed at mitigating the impacts of BGA through three core outcomes. 1) Obtain important information on where resistant strains have spread and whether resistance is changing with time (seasons and years). 2) Generate baseline data on the biocontrol (i.e., natural predators and parasitoids of BGA). 3) Working closely with an advisory group of industry experts, we will devise pest management guidelines for BGA that carefully considers other lucerne pests and the broader beneficial insect community. These recommendations, along with our research findings, will be communicated to industry stakeholders through multiple platforms (e.g., presentations, articles, videos). We will provide AgriFutures Australia with a final report detailing our research findings and communication outputs.
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