The rising issue of red legged earth mite (RLEM) resistance to insecticides has meant authorities have had to come up with new strategies to help reduce reliance on chemical solutions, with new tools released to help farmers generate more information about how to best combat the pest.
RLEM is one of the most destructive pests to newly emerging crops in Australia, particularly canola.
Luis Mata, research team lead at pest management organisation Cesar Australia said there has been a surge of RLEM resistance reported in Western Australia, South Australia.
Both pyrethroid and organophosphate-based insecticides have been impacted.
He said RLEM resistance was part of a broader global issue with insecticide resistance.
"Globally there are 350 insects with reported resistance, it makes it critical that you swap your players and don't rely solely on one group of products," Dr Mata said at the recent Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) update in Bendigo.
He also advocated against scorched earth insecticide regimes, saying with a limited amount of insecticide options growers had to also work in with their 'allies', in the form of beneficial insect species.
"Use your allies and avoid friendly fire in the form of products that do harm to those beneficials."
He said Cesar was working on a seasonal risk management to help farmers work through issues with RLEM.
The tool allows users to explore the impact of various management strategies to reduce RLEM risk and the consequences on other pests and beneficial species.
"This product is currently in beta release, so we'd encourage farmers to get out there and check it out."
There is also another new tool to allow farmers to calculate all important RLEM hatch times, which can help assess critical periods of crop risk.
This tool also provides historical data to allow farmers to assess what has happened in the past in their area in regards to hatching dates.
The season risk management tool can be found here:
The seasonal hatching tool can be found here: