Enhancing the role of cultivar resistance in integrated management of sugarcane stem borers.

Stem borer-resistant sugarcane cultivars have been a critical component of IPM programs in Louisiana for more than 20 years and half helped reduce insecticide use by approximately 50%. Recent commercial releases of susceptible cultivars threaten to undo this progress. On-going evaluation of experimental sugarcane cultivars for resistance to the stem borers Diatraea saccharalis and Eoreuma loftini have revealed resistance remains in the modern cultivar development programs. Further, field trials have revealed there exists phenotypic plasticity in resistance expression.