Cotton boll weevil

DDT at 10 pounds per acre to control the bollworm, boll weevil, cotton fleahopper, tarnished plant bug, rapid plant bug, and some species of cutworms and thrips. (On cotton just up it was found that only 0.07 pound per acre of aldrin, applied as an emulsion, was necessary for the control of cutworms and thrips.) Significantly, no increase in aphid population was noted following the use of the aldrin-DDT mixture (4). 

While solid m.p. 95 -96 - C, soluble in organic solvents. An insecticide similar to chlordane. Used to control cotton boll weevil. 

In 1963, Keller and coworkers (45) and Neff and Vanderzant (52) reported the presence of a boll weevil attractant in cotton squares and seedlings. In the same year, an arrestant (a substance... 

Although the boll weevil, a very serious cotton pest in the South, feeds voraciously on cotton squares and bolls in response to an at-tractant or attractants contained therein, these same cotton parts (49) contain also a boll weevil repellent that shows its effect once the at-tractant has volatilized completely. Department of Agriculture scientists are attempting to isolate and identify this repellent, which presumably could be applied to ward off weevil attack. Cotton seedlings painted with an aqueous emulsion of the material effectively repelled 100% of the weevils for 5 hours and only medium damage was evident after 12 hours, whereas control seedlings were completely destroyed after only 2 hours. 

In the middle of the 1980s in the USSR, approximately 150 species acquired resistance to one of the various OCPs and OPPs used [3], and now require more complicated means of suppression. For example, until the 1950s, weevils and boll weevils were the main pests damaging cotton. After the widespread use of OCP insecticides - DDT, toxafene, and others - cottonworms, tobacco tortricids, tobacco aphids, spider mites and loopers must now be fought as well. Their number jumped after suppression of the first two target species. 

Scheme 54 summarizes Font s synthesis of (+)-grandisol (36), the male pheromone of the cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) [80]. The key-step is the double [2+2] photocycloaddition of ethylene to bis(a,(3-butenohde) A to give B, which yielded C after glycol cleavage. The recently identified pheromone of the oleander scale (Aspidiotus nerii) possesses a structure similar to that of grandisol (Scheme 54), and its synthesis was reported by Ducrot [81 ] and also by Guerrero [82,83]. 

Bull, D.L. 1980. Fate of diflubenzuron after application to cotton and the boll weevil. Southwest. Entomol., Suppl. 1 2-7. 

The number one cotton pest in the United States, the boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boh.), occurs in Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Venezuela and is probably also the number one pest in these countries. 

Most of the compounds of arsenic are toxic when in contact with the skin, when inhaled, or when ingested. As with arsenics cousin phosphorus above it in group 15 of the periodic table, care must be taken when using arsenic. The compound arsenic trioxide (As O ), an excellent weed-killer, is also carcinogenic. Copper acetoarsenite, known as Paris green, is used to spray cotton for boll weevils. A poisonous dose of arsenic as small as 60 miUigrams can be detected within the body by using the Marsh test. 

As opposed to the results indicated above, the effect of gossypol on the boll weevil is quite different. Gossypol is a feeding stimulant to the boll weevil (260). Boll weevils feeding on an artificial diet were healthier and had In jroved egg hatch when the gossypol fraction from cotton seed was used as the principle protein source. 

Figure 1. Phenological synchronization of cotton boll opening and diapause of boll weevils and bolhvorms (38).

For example, gossypol, a terpenoid substance, is an allomone that limits herbivory by several lepidopteran species on cotton (Gossypium spp., MalvaceaeK whereas it is a kairomone for the boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis and acts as a feeding stimulant for this insect (3,21,22) ... 

Agronomic and entomological practices. Plants of diverse cotton lines were grown In field plots during the years 1978-1982 on the Plant Science Farm at Mississippi State University. Plants were treated for boll weevils with Guthlon, and normal fertilizer, herbicide, and other cultural practices were applied. The field design was normally a randomized complete block with 4 replications. Plant material (terminals. 

For the Mexican boll weevil a specially prepared calcium arsenate containing up to 20 per cent, of arsenic pentoxide is effective. This is prepared by heating together white arsenic and precipitated chalk in the presence of excess air at 650° C. The cotton plant is not injured by this preparation.10 In Peru about 30,000 acres of cotton fields are dusted annually from aeroplanes with calcium arsenate. Acid arsenates of calcium appear to be more toxic to boll weevils and to locusts than the basic arsenates. This is probably because the latter must be partially hydrolysed to compounds giving more soluble arsenic before toxic results are produced.11 The extensive application of such sprays to cotton plants is frequently followed by heavy infestations of the cotton aphis. This appears to be due in the first place to the positive photo-tropism of the winged females to white substances such as the arsenate, chalk or flour. Increase of the aphis population is then aided by the destruction by the spray of the hymenopterous parasites of the aphis.12... 

Arsenic trioxide finds major use in the preparation of other compounds, notably those used in agricultural applications, The compounds monosodium methylarsonate. disodium methylarsonate, methane arsenic acid (cacodylic acid) are used for weed control, while arsenic acid, H3ASO4, is used as a desiccant for the defoliation of cotton crops, Other compounds once widely used in agriculture are calcium arsenate for control of boll weevils, lead arsenate as a pesticide for fruit crops, and sodium arsenite as a herbicide and for cattle and sheep dip. In some areas, arsenilic acid has been used as a feed additive for swine and poultry. Restrictions on these compounds vary from one country and region to the next. 

NuralA. H., Tittiger C., Welch W. and Blomquist G. J. (2001) Isolation and characterization of isoprenyl diphosphate synthase from cotton boll weevil. Presented at Annu. Meet. Int. Soc. Chem. Ecol. 18th, Lake Tahoe. 

Curculionidae. The boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis, that great despoiler of cotton in the southern U. S., synthesizes a quaternary blend of sex pheromones that have been collectively labeled grandlure. Four compounds that interact synergistically have been identified as (+)-2-(cis-isopropenyl-1-methylcyclobutyl) ethanol (XI), (Z)-2-(3,3-dimethyl cyclohexylidene)ethanol (XII), (Z.)-2-(3,3-dimethylecyclohexylidene)acetaldehyde (XIII), and (Ej-2-(3,3-dimethylcycloh.exylidene)acetaldehyde (XIV) (54). 

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