Can pests or diseases develop resistance to biopesticides?
Biopesticides differ from chemical pesticides as far as ‘resistance management’ is concerned because beneficial microbes have so many different modes of action and produce a wide range of natural chemicals. Chemical pesticides are usually just one ‘active ingredient’, which makes it much easier for a pest or disease to develop resistance to this. There are no recorded incidences of resistance developing to a biopesticide – therefore they can be routinely sprayed and do not have to be ‘rotated’ with other active ingredients’ in the same way as it is necessary to rotate chemical active ingredient to avoid resistance.