New insecticide technology is needed in the Australian cotton production system to reduce reliance on old chemical groups and to maintain profitability. Conventional insecticides provide us with the backbone of insect control in cotton and will remain as integral and necessary tools for incorporation into integrated pest management (ERM) programs in the future. Several new classes of insecticides such as the oxadiazines, phenylpyrazoles, avennectins, neonicotinoids, spinosyns, pyrroles and diacylhydrazines have new modes of action and offer great pronxise for the future of insecticide resistance management (ERM) and IPM in cotton. Generally these toxicants are more environmentally acceptable than existing insecticide chemistry; because they offer greater specificity to target pests, have greater intrinsic activity, achieving acceptable insect control at low field use rates and because they degrade rapidly in the environment to harmless metabolites