Monitoring cotton bollworms through synthetic sex pheromone traps

Bollworms are most serious pests of cotton crop which do not only cause losses by devouring foliage and fruiting bodies of cotton which results in low yield but also deteriorate its lint quality. Their management relies on application of pesticides but recent introduction of synthetic pheromones for mass trapping of their adult moths have given better solution for recording and monitoring their population. We used five different components of synthetic sex pheromone installed in funnel type traps (4 traps/per acre) at different localities of district Sanghar. The components were (0E, 12E)-10, 12 Hexadecadienal for Earias insulana fBoisduvaU Z7, Z11-16AC (50), Z7, E11-16AC (50) Hexadecadienyle Acetate for Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders), D, Z11-16AL (97), Z9-16 AL (3) Hexedecenal for Helicoverpa armeigera (Hubner) and (Z, E)-9,11- and (Z, E)-9, 12-tetradecadienyl acetate (Z9, E11-14: Ac; Z9, E12-14: Ac) for Spodoptera litura (Fabricius). All these bollworm species in different localities were successfully trapped with significant different population. A maximum population of P. gossypiella and H. armigera were at Tando Adam, E. insulana at Shadadpur and S. litura at Jam Nawaz Ali. P. gossypiella trapped maximal in the month of October, E. insulana in September, H. armigera in August and S. litura in November, respectively. Based on the results, it is recommended that these pheromone lures should be introduced at different timings and pest species according to their presence.