Mass Trapping –A Promising Technique for Integrated Management of Pink Bollworm, Pectinophora gossyipiella Saunders (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in Cotton

The management of Pink bollworm, a worldwide pest in cotton is mostly dependent on chemical insecticides which lead to several implications and warrant the exploration of other methods. Use of sex pheromones for management of insect pests is not a new-fangled one but need be studied extensively for effective pest management. Hence, a study was conducted at RARS, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh for two consecutive seasons to study the effectiveness of mass trapping in pink bollworm management. The experimental results showed that the mean moth catch was highest from sleeve traps when compared to funnel trap and delta traps with sticky liners irrespective of trap densities. The mean number of larvae and locule damage was significantly low coupled with high seed cotton yield from the plots with sleeve traps at trap densities of 50 and 20 traps/ha.