AbstractBACKGROUNDIn spite of considerable interest in the impact of pesticides on pest populations, few attempts have been made to link resistance patterns of insect pests to land‐use features across spatial and temporal scales. We hypothesise that pollen beetle pesticide resistance increases in areas with a high proportion of oilseed rape and with an even mixture of winter and spring oilseed rape owing to high pesticide selection pressure in such areas.RESULTSHere, we investigated 7 years of lambda‐cyhalothrin (Karate®) resistance in field‐collected pollen beetle adults from a total of 180 sampling points across ten regions in Sweden. We found a positive effect on pollen beetle pesticide resistance of proportion of oilseed rape and even spring–winter oilseed rape mixture. However, this was true only for the regional spatial scale. Significant land‐use effects in the long‐term models, with oilseed rape data averaged over a longer (4 years) period of time, suggested an effect of regional landscape history on current pest resistance.CONCLUSIONFor successful control of pollen beetle pesticide resistance, we suggest a long‐term regional strategy for oilseed rape management. This land‐use approach provides a framework for further investigations that integrate resistance management into landscape research. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry