I’m frequently very surprised considering how it can be easy to buy strong insecticides. Looking in Amazon for some books on aphids, I found the link for buying the “Bug Clear Ultra Gun“….a powerful insecticide contaning acetamiprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide that kill aphids together with several other insects.
Similar products are used in agriculture and it is not so smart in my opinion to freely use this product also in private gardens or in other cases without any control, since this use could favour the presence of resistance to this molecule. At this regard, Syngenta Crop Protection and Bayer CropScience have revealed that some populations of the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) in Southern France and Northern Spain have developed high levels of resistance to neonicotinoid insecticides. In view of this emerging resistance, it is necessary to plan the use of pesticides in order to prevent the further spread and intensification of resistance in aphids on crops of agricultural interest. In particular, according to Slater et al, neonicotinoid-resistant aphids have been located in peach crops distributed in the Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence-AlpesCote d’Azur and Rhone-Alpes regions of France, as well as in the Catalonia regions of Spain.
Slater and colleague recommended that a resistance management strategy be used to reduce resistance selection pressure to neonicotinoids and other insecticide classes by employing a rotational strategy that incorporates insecticides that are not currently affected by resistance. Considering that several aphids (such as Myzus persicae) are polyphagous pest of many economically important crops, the continued selection for resistance may result in resistant individuals establishing on other hosts that successively move to crops of agricultural interest… and this is why I think that it shouldn’t so easy to buy neonicotinoids!
Slater R, Paul VL, Andrews M, Garbay M, Camblin P (2012) Identifying the presence of neonicotinoidresistant peach-potato aphid (Myzus persicae) in the peach-growing regions of southern France and northern Spain. Pest management science, 68 (4), 634-638.
