Surveying the population structure and resistance to pesticides in soybean two-spotted spider mite populations

The two-spotted spider mite (TSSM) is a global pest that feeds on more than 150 crops including soybean. In Ontario, its pest pressure is especially high in dry years. With climate change, the TSSM pest pressure will increase, predicting the need for the effective pesticide control of TSSM. Dimethoate (Lagon® or Cygon®), an organophosphate pesticide, is currently the only active ingredient registered for the mite control on soybean. However, our pilot analysis identified mite resistance to dimethoate in ALL field TSSM populations tested, which correlates with dimethoate inefficiency reported by farmers. If alternative pesticides are to be registered for mite control, it is not clear which pesticides are expected to be effective, due to the multi-resistance status of most mite populations. In this project we will survey the pesticide resistance status of TSSM populations across soybean production areas in Ontario and will inform the future pesticide registration processes.

Faculty Supervisor:

Vojislava Grbic;Daniel Lizotte

Student:

Partner:

Grain Farmers of Ontario

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

The University of Western Ontario

Program: