Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in cotton emphasises conservation of beneficial species (mainly insects and spiders) to suppress pest populations and reduce the need to apply insecticides.

This Guide provides you with a comprehensive summary of the key cotton crop protection issues, and is brought to you by the Australian cotton industry's joint extension program, CottonInfo.

Resistance to insecticides has repeatedly developed in Helicoverpa armigera around the world and is of major concern to the cotton industry in Australia.

Since the introduction of transgenic cotton in 1996 a robust resistance management plan (RMP) has been in place which works in consort with an insecticide resistance management strategy (IRMS).

The Australian cotton industry depends heavily on genetically engineered Bt cotton (currently in the form of Bollgard II®) which provides resistance to the key pests of cotton, larvae of the moths Helicoverpa armigera