Pyrethroid resistance to agriculturally important pests is important to everyone on this program. Understanding how pyrethroid resistance occurs, warning signs, prevention and management will offer a longer life in the marketplace for the pyrethroid products.

In earlier cases of resistance to organochlorine or organophosphate products, the chemical industry could bring out a new product to take the place of the one which resistance had ruled ineffective. There are not as many new products reaching the market now.

Since several companies either have pyrethroids on the market or will have them on the market soon, preservation of these products in the marketplace is very important to the Agricultural Chemical Industry. Worldwide cotton production has reached new yield plateaus due to pyrethroid use and to maintain this in the future should be the goal of everyone associated with cotton production.

The cotton grower has accepted the pyrethroids as safe, broad-spectrum insecticides to use throughout the season. They have been his answer to bollworm/budworm control, but have not taken the place of organophosphates for boll weevil control. Mite buildups are often experienced in cotton after pyrethroids have been used and miticides are needed to keep the populations down. These factors, along with education, price, insect pressure and other factors have resulted in the pyrethroids not being used as often as we predicted back in the early seventies. The public and private sectors warned against resistance and predicted a short life for pyrethroids in U.S. cotton production.