The primary strategy for delaying the evolution of pest resistance to transgenic crops that produce insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) entails refuges of plants that do not produce Bt toxins and thus allow survival of susceptible pests. Recent advances include using refuges together with Bt crop 'pyramids' that make two or more Bt toxins effective against the same pest, and ...

Chemical insecticides produce the risk of developing pest resistance, side effects to non-target species, and long lived residues in the environment. Generalist Predators can be effective agents of bio-control against Musca domestica L. (house fly). Spiders, particularly assemblages of species, have been shown to be effective in reducing pest insects. Common house fly catcher (Plexippus petersi...

We describe and analyze a 'screened refuge' technique for indefinitely sustaining control of insect pests using transgenic pesticidal crops or an applied pesticide, even when resistance is not recessive. The screen is a physical barrier that restricts pest movement. In a deterministic discrete-time model of the use of this technique, we obtain asymptotic analytical formulas for the two importan...

Cultural methods such as crop fertilization can affect susceptibility of plants to insect pests by altering plant tissue nutrient levels. Research shows that the ability of a crop plant to resist or tolerate insect pests and diseases is tied to optimal physical, chemical and mainly biological properties of soils. Soils with high organic matter and active soil biology generally exhibit good soil...

The Mexican rice borer, Eoreuma loftini (Dyar), is an invasive pest of rice, Oryza sativa L., in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. This pest also damages sugarcane, Saccharum spp. hybrids; corn, Zea mays L.; and sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, and feeds on weedy noncrop grasses. Multiple aspects of integrated pest management including use of pheromone traps, manipulation of plan...

Brassicas comprise a major group of vegetable crops in Zhejiang Province, China and southeast Queensland, Australia. In Zhejiang, heavy reliance on chemical control to manage insect pests in brassica vegetable production has resulted in insecticide resistance, increased costs of pest control and insecticide residues hazardous to human health. In southeast Queensland, reliance on chemical contro...

The cowpea weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus Fabr.) is the most destructive pest of the cowpea bean; it reduces seed quality. To control this pest, resistance testing combined with genetic analysis using molecular markers has been widely applied in research. Among the markers that show reliable results, the inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) (microsatellites) are noteworthy. This study was pe...