Pesticide resistance is the sorting of pest population targeted by a pesticide resulting in decreased susceptibility to that chemical. In other words, pests develop a resistance to a chemical through natural selection: the most resistant organisms are the ones to survive and pass on their genetic traits to their offspring.
Manufacturers of pesticides tend to prefer a definition that is dependent on failure of a product in a real situation, sometimes called field resistance. For example, the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (IRAC) definition of insecticide resistance is 'a heritable change in the sensitivity of a pest population that is reflected in the repeated failure of a product to achieve the expected level of control when used according to the label recommendation for that pest species'.
Pesticide resistance is increasing in occurrence. Farmers in the USA lost 7% of their crops to pests in the 1940s; over the 1980s and 1990s, the loss was 13%, even though more pesticides were being used. Over 500 species of pests have developed a resistance to a pesticide. Other sources estimate the number to be around 1000 species since 1945.
Rachel Carson predicted the phenomenon in her 1962 book Silent Spring.
Read more about Pesticide Resistance: Factors, Examples, Multiple and Cross-resistance, Physiology and Behavior, Management
Famous quotes containing the word resistance:
“How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)