Pink Bollworm in cotton control (Pest characters, Nature of Damage and Control Measure)
Scientific name: Pectinophora gossypiella.
Family: Gelechiidae.
Order: Lepidoptera.
Pest characters of Pink Bollworm in cotton
• Moths flies at night and sight of night.
• Adults are tining and dull in colour.
• Antenna filiform type.
• The moths lay eggs alone or groups.
• The larvae start eating into the boll from the top to downward.
Nature of Damage of Pink Bollworm in cotton
1. It is a serious pest of cotton. It attacks cotton when plant at time at bearing stage.
2. A female moths lay eggs singly or in batch on the underside of the leaves, buds, flower or in green bolls.
3. After hatching the eggs, larvae enters into the flower, buds or into the green bolls.
4. When flowers are infested due to the feeding of inside a characteristics symptoms produced called ”Rosette bloom”. Such flowers, buds fail to develop boll.
5. When green bolls are infested firstly the whole of the entry close down, but the larvae continue feeding inside on the seed kernel.
6. The attacked boll fall down permanently which grows mature don’t contain good gining and seed oil content also reduced.
Management/Control Measure of Pink Bollworm in cotton
A) Nonchemical control of Pink Bollworm in cotton
1. Field sanitation after harvest.
2. Deep Ploughing after harvest.
3. Early sowing and harvesting.
4. Sun drying of cotton seed.
5. Fumigation of cotton seed.
B) Chemical control of Pink Bollworm in cotton
1. Using systemic insecticides. e.g.
a) Diazinon 60 EC @ 1.68 L/ha.
b) Sevin 80 WP @ 22 L/ha.
c) Ripcord/ Cymbush/ Fenon 10 EC @ 1.2 L/ha.
