Spider mite (atari: tetranychidae) resistance to acaricides

Spider mites (Acari: Tetranychidae) were known before the so-called chemical era of plant protection as a minor threat to what were then mostly low-productivity agro-ecosystems. Various predators kept spicier mite populations mostly below the control threshold. After World War Two. however, the growing use of organophosphorus insecticides (designed primarily to control key pest insects) provoked a rapid evolution of resistance to organophosphates and made spider mites an economically threatening pest species. The grow inn resistance to organophosphates and altered level of harmfulness of Tetranychidae have imposed the need for synthesizing specific acaricides i.e. compounds primarily intended for controlling that group of phytophagous mites. However, ever since 1950s resistance of Tetranvchus spp. and Panouxchus spp. populations/strain to all major acaricides has been recorded after such brief periods as several years. Serious failures in controlling them have increasingly induced research into the phenomenology, evolution and mechanisms of resistance of Tetranychidae to acaricides. The paper provides a brief survey of the history and characteristics of resistance and summarizes data on factors of evolution and molecular mechanisms of spider mite resistance to acaricides. emphasizing some elements of the programme of preventive activities.