Eco-Friendly Management of Pink Bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella) in Cotton

Abstract

The Pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella) is a key pest that attacks the cotton crop and it is distributed all over the world where cotton has grown. In the present study, four traps, viz., PB ropes, Delta traps, Light traps, Capsule lures, one entomopathogenic fungus, “Beauveria bassiana, and one noval insecticide, e.g., Radiant 120 SC (Spintoram), were evaluated to check the percentage infestation reduction of Pectinophora gossypiella under field conditions under the RCBD design. The results showed that the effectiveness of the traps was excellent in the early days but declined as time went on. The results showed that Pb rope traps had maximum control over the pink boll worm population (96.30%), followed by delta traps (85.03%), and light traps had the lowest population reduction (75.13%) when compared to the control plot.In the case of the entomopathogenic fungi and novel insecticide Radiant 120 SC, the results revealed that the maximum population reduction (79.16%) was observed with Radiant as compared to Beauveria bassiana (57.02%). The results regarding beneficial insects showed that the maximum survival rate was found in Radiant 120 SC (57.11%) while the minimum was observed in the case of entomopathogenic fungi (52.46%), which indicated that Radiant 120 SC was less toxic than Beauveria bassiana. Overall, it can be concluded that sex pheromone traps gave better results as compared to all other treatments, including novel insecticides.