Abstract BACKGROUND Over‐reliance on and excessive use of pesticides for pest management have led to various side effects, including the rapid development of pesticide resistance. The abundant reactive species present in plasma‐activated water (PAW) make it a potential alternative to pesticides for controlling crop pests. Whether PAW can truly replace pesticides or significantly reduce their usage depends on its efficacy when applied in the same manner as pesticides. RESULTS A foliar spray bioassay that simulates the field application of pesticides was established to estimate the direct toxicity of PAW to two insecticide‐susceptible and two resistant strains of cotton aphids in the presence and absence of imidacloprid or flonicamid. Spraying PAW alone only caused mortality of about 20–30% against the four cotton aphid strains, significantly lower than the effects of imidacloprid LC 25 dose and flonicamid LC 25 dose to the four strains. Spraying a mixture of PAW and imidacloprid at LC 25 dose or flonicamid at LC 25 dose resulted in significantly higher mortality rates against the four strains compared to the two insecticides diluted with pure water. Relative to pure water control, PAW and its mixtures with imidacloprid LC 25 dose or flonicamid LC 25 dose displayed no adverse effects on chlorophyll content and the photosynthetic parameters of cotton seedlings. CONCLUSION The data obtained indicate that PAW has the potential to serve as a plant‐safe synergist for enhancing the insecticidal efficacy of imidacloprid and flonicamid against both insecticide‐susceptible and ‐resistant cotton aphids. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.
Xu et al. (2026) studied this question.