Coffee pest resistant to common insecticide

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Date
1996
Language
en
Type
News Item
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Open Access
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Citation
CTA. 1996. Coffee pest resistant to common insecticide . Spore 61. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Permanent link to cite or share this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/47243
External link to download this item: http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jcta61e/
Abstract/Description
A new strain of the coffee berry borer is threatening coffee production world-vvide because it is resistant to the most commonly used coffee insecticide. In 1989, scientists on the South Pacific Ocean island of New Caledonia found that the pest had...
Notes
A new strain of the coffee berry borer is threatening coffee production world-vvide because it is resistant to the most commonly used coffee insecticide. In 1989, scientists on the South Pacific Ocean island of New Caledonia found that the pest had developed resistance to the commonly used insecticide, endosulfan. So far that resistance has not been seen elsewhere. However, the coffee berry borer is a cosmopolitan pest found wherever coffee is grown and scientists are worried that it will be only a matter of time before the resistance becomes more widespread because of the unique way the borer breeds. The pests drill holes in the coffee berries and lay eggs inside the beans. Of the beetles that hatch females outnumber males by a ratio of 10-to-1. The few males in the brood are unable to fly and never leave the coffee bean. These male beetles mate with their siblings before the mobile females fly from the bean. This incestuous relationship increases the likelihood that offspring will receive two doses of the resistance gene. Naturally, this will lead to the resistance spreading quickly throughout the population, with the implication that it could lead to resistance to endosulfan spreading across the world faster than might be expected with other insects. Scientists from Purdue University, who discovered the coffee berry borer's strange sexual behaviour, are not certain whether the resistance originated on New Caledonia or was brought onto the island. They will be studying populations in other parts of the world to see if there are similarities with the situation occurring on New Caledonia. Department of Entomology Purdue University West Lafayette Indiana 47907 - 1143 USA
Subjects
CROPS;
Regions
Pacific
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