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Hence development of resistant natural enemies is the need of the hour to make IPM a success, which aims at maintaining the pest population at a level without causing any ill effects on the environment.

In India efforts were being carried out to develop insecticide resistant strains of bioagents such as Trichogramma, a most commonly used efficient egg parasitoid.

Work was initiated at the Project Directorate of Biological Control (PDBC), Bangalore to develop an endosulfan tolerant strain of T.chilonis for use in cotton and other crop ecosystems against lepidopterans, especially cotton bollworm.

A strain physiologically tolerant to endosulfan was developed by treating the parasitoid with endosulfan. This strain took more than 325 generations and about eight years of time to achieve the task.

The product developed was transferred to M/s. Excel Industries, Mumbai and the company has already started using the tolerant strain of T.chilonis on a large scale in many states. This strain named as ‘Endogram’ is the first of its kind.

Multiple insecticide tolerant strain of T.chilonis utilising the endogram strain have also resulted in tolerance to monocrotophos and fenvalerate after 34 and 26 generations respectively.

Such developed resistant strains of natural enemies can thrive better at field condition and can do their job of predation/parasitisation efficiently.

There is a continuous need for natural enemy strains resistant not only to the above mentioned insecticides but also other most commonly used pesticides so that they can be better integrated in our pest management strategy.

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