Determination of susceptibility and resistance of some greenhouse populations of Tetranychus urticae Koch to chlorpyrifos (Dursban 4) by the petri dish–Potter tower method

The level of susceptibility of the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, populations collected from greenhouses in Antalya and Isparta regions of Turkey against chlorpyrifos was determined by a petri dish bioassay method. This study consisted of two stages. In the first stage, using a diagnostic dosage (0.026 ml chlorpyrifos in 100 ml distilled water) it was determined whether these populations are resistant or susceptible to chlorpyrifos. Then, different dosages of chlorpyrifos were applied to resistant populations to determine LC₅₀ and LC₉₀ values. Resistant ratios of populations were calculated by dividing the LC₅₀ values of resistant populations by that of a susceptible population of T. urticae strain GSS. The resistance ratio of T. urticae populations collected from greenhouses ranged from 8.00 to 1,774.00. Results show that while three of the populations gathered from the Isparta region, where greenhouse vegetable growing has been increasing since 2000, are susceptible, two of them are only partially resistant to chlorpyrifos. On the other hand, all the two-spotted spider mite populations collected from the Antalya region, the centre of greenhouse vegetable production for many years, were found to be highly resistant to chlorpyrifos.