Is Resistance Forever?
Wednesday February 22, 2012
Question:
My question is concerning pesticide resistance and cockroaches. I realize that rotating the pesticides and type of pesticides is a good method for avoiding pesticide resistance, but if you do have pesticide in your inventory that roaches have developed resistance to would it be possible to bring that pesticide back into rotation 9 to 18 months later? My thinking is that the product should be out of rotation long enough and the resistance developed could possibly be defeated because they have not been exposed to that particular material in a while.
Lawrence, TX
Answer:
I would say that bringing back a product within just a year, when you believe that resistance to it is being shown, would be far too early. And, as we have seen with the Common Bed Bug and its resistance to pyrethroids, the development of resistance is an evolutionary phenomenon that could linger in the genetic makeup of an organism for a very long time. Because of the constant exposure to DDT when it was first introduced for bed bug control these bugs quickly built up resistance to the molecule, and this resistance was an ability to block the effect - the mode of action - of that molecule on the nervous system of the bed bug. Synthetic pyrethroids were introduced 3 decades later and really not even used heavily on bed bugs for a... Read more
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