Although surveys of pest populations documenting evolved insecticide resistance often suggest abundant potential for insecticide control failures, studies documenting the actual occurrence of such failures in commercial agriculture are rare. If farmers currently practice adaptive management, abandoning the use of insecticides once resistance emerges, actual control failures could be rare. Here I use data gathered by independent pest management consultants to describe a case study of the realized efficacy of commercial field applications of insecticides, examining the control of Lygus hesperus Knight on cotton. On average, insecticides reduced target pest populations to 19% of their preapplication densities. Short-term efficacy of insecticides was variable, but only one severe control failure was observed (1 of 50, 2%). The rarity of severe control failures observed in this study is in agreement with the few other studies conducted in commercial settings, but additional research is needed to assess the generality of this result. Although pesticides can cause longer-term problems, including target pest resurgences and secondary pest outbreaks, risk-averse attitudes among farmers coupled with relatively consistent short-term insecticide efficacy may be potent forces propelling farmers toward the use of insecticides.

中文翻译：

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在商业农业中使用杀虫剂后控制失败：它们多久发生一次？棉花盲蝇（半翅目：Miridae）防治案例研究

尽管对记录进化出的杀虫剂抗性的害虫种群的调查通常表明杀虫剂控制失败的可能性很大，但记录商业农业中此类失败实际发生的研究很少见。如果农民目前实行适应性管理，一旦出现抗药性就放弃使用杀虫剂，实际控制失败的情况可能很少见。在这里，我使用独立害虫管理顾问收集的数据来描述一个关于杀虫剂商业化田间应用已实现功效的案例研究，检查了对棉花的控制。平均而言，杀虫剂将目标害虫种群减少到其施用前密度的 19%。杀虫剂的短期疗效参差不齐，但仅观察到一次严重的控制失败（50 人中有 1 人，2%）。本研究中观察到的严重控制失败的罕见性与在商业环境中进行的少数其他研究一致，但需要进一步的研究来评估该结果的普遍性。尽管杀虫剂会导致长期问题，包括目标害虫死灰复燃和次生害虫爆发，但农民的风险规避态度加上相对一致的短期杀虫剂功效可能是推动农民使用杀虫剂的强大力量。