Australian cotton production is in the process of adopting new trarisgenic

(INGARD) technology for managing heliothis and other caterpillars. INGARD

technology has no effect on sucking insects such as green mirids, and under the low

insecticide use patterns envisaged using INGARD cotton, the status of sucking pests

in general will increase. In the past, most insecticides applied to control heliothis,

inadvertently controlled sucking pests. As these are removed from operations,

sucking pests will survive in the crop.

Conventional cotton producers also have an awareness of the need to adopt a more

selective approach to early season pest management. Both these approaches

highlight the need to develop sound management practices for sucking pests in

general, and green mirids in particular, as current insecticide treatments against

these pests are invariably disruptive to beneficial fauna. Some of the new, more

selective insecticides for green mirids (e. g. fipronil, imiacloprid) will be more

expensive than organophosphates and pyrethroids, further highlighting the need for

careful consideration about when and how to control green mirids.