Insecticide-resistant rapeseed pest may head to U.K.

An insecticide-resistant bug that is an “important” pest of rapeseed may be heading to the U.K., the country’s Home-Grown Cereals Authority said.

Some populations of peach-potato aphids in southern France and northern Spain have developed “high levels of resistance” to a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoid insecticides, the HGCA said in a report on its website today, citing surveys by Syngenta AG and Bayer AG. 

"With the current prevailing winds from the south, there are fears that some of these aphids may make it on to British soil,” the HGCA said. “The peach potato aphid is an important pest of oilseed rape.”

The U.K. is the European Union’s fourth-largest rapeseed grower, after France, Germany and Poland, according to the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg. November- delivery rapeseed has climbed 7 percent in Paris this month on speculation that dry conditions in Europe will cut production.

The aphids can spread viruses that affect rapeseed, the HGCA said. Pest control measures usually rely on giving seeds a dressing of neonicotinoid insecticide, the authority said.

"If resistance develops in U.K. populations, control will be severely affected,” the HGCA said.