Resisting insects: shifting strategies in chemical control

Throughout the 20th century, scientists developed a variety of chemical compounds to kill insects and other menaces of agriculture and public health. Yet, in many cases, the target insects outmaneuvered the scientists by developing resistance to insecticides--in much the same way as some bacteria can tolerate antibiotics. Insecticide resistance research has involved scientists from a range of disciplines and a variety of institutional contexts that have often guided research strategy. For example, entomologists working at agricultural stations and universities concentrated on insect physiology and evolutionary genetics, while industrial chemists continued the development of novel compounds capable of killing resistant pests. Collaboration between the two groups beginning in the 1940s did not provide a solution to the resistance, but did lead to a strategic shift from pest control to pest management that continues to the present.