Urgent research into a pest causing severe damage in the U.K.'s pea sector is being carried out by a team in a effort to understand its insecticide resistance. 

It will focus on how to combat the pea and bean weevil (Sitona lineatus) which is becoming increasingly resistant to insecticide and comes as a response to reports of a failure to control the pest with pyrethroid sprays - a special chemical class of active ingredients found in many modern insecticides used by growers.

The work is being carried out by Rothamsted Research led by Dr. Steve Foster, of the department of biological chemistry and crop protection, who has tested samples collected recently from several English counties.

He has found they contain adult weevils that are resistant to a representative pyrethroid when it is applied at a similar dose to that which is used in the field.

"The next step is to find and understand the cause of this resistance, which is likely to exist in other pyrethroid insecticides used," Foster said in a release.

"In the meantime, growers should be aware that treatment with these compounds against this pest may not be effective."

The research is being funded from the U.K.'s Centre of Excellence for Peas and Beans (PGRO) and also in part from Innovate U.K. and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

Photo: Rothamsted Research

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