Cotton bollworm control using

Endrin was introduced in the United States in 1951 as an avicide, rodenticide and insecticide. Its principal use to control the cotton bollworm and tobacco budworm peaked in the early 1970s. In 1979, the EPA canceled some uses of endrin and indicated its intent to cancel all uses of endrin (EPA 1979f USDA 1995). By 1986, all uses were voluntarily canceled (Bishop 1984, 1985, 1986 EPA 1993e USDA 1995), except for its use as a toxicant on bird perches, which was canceled in 1991 (USDA 1995). Endrin also was a contaminant in dieldrin (Verschueren 1983) however, all uses of this pesticide have been canceled since the mid-1980s (EPA 1992b). Consequently, there are no longer any significant releases of endrin to the environment in the United States. 

Because pheromones are used by female insects to indicate their state of fertile readiness, pheromones have proven to be an effective weapon in controlling some crop-damaging insects. For example, when a specific mating pheromone is applied to crops, male cotton bollworms and female tobacco budworms compulsively mate with one another. Because of physical incompatibilities, their bodies become interlocked and both insects eventually die. Less drastic uses of pheromones to control crop damage involve baiting traps... 

Many baculoviruses126 (i.e., insect viruses) are species-specific. They have been used for the successful control of the gypsy moth, velvet bean caterpillar (on 5.9 million ha of soybeans in Brazil), cotton bollworm, codling moth (on apples, pears, and walnuts), rhinoceros beetle, potato tuber moth, sawflies, and porina moth.127 The gypsy moth was introduced into the United States in Massachusetts from Europe in 1869. It defoliates many trees if there are no checks on its population. The war against it has often used diflubenzuron ( dimilin1 ) (11.20), which affects many nontarget species.128... 

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). 

Uses Nonsystemic insecticide and acaricide used to control bollworms, Alabama argillacea in cotton, and Chilo spp. in rice and other leaf-eating larvae in vegetables and fruits (Worthing and Hance, 1991). 

Insecticidal control of the pink bollworm is yet another management practice used by growers in Arizona pink bollworm exit holes in cotton bolls might provide portals of entry for A. flavus (55). Unfortunately, it is not economically feasible to achieve 100% control of the pink bollworm in cotton through the hi -ftequency use of insecticides, and even relatively low levels of infestation by this insect pest is well correlated to high levels of A. flavus infection and subsequent aflatoxin contamination. 

Uses insecticide to control aphids, scale insects, jassids, lepidopterous larvae, bollworms, mealybugs, psyllids, thrips, spider mites, etc. in citrus fruit, pome fruit, olives, cotton, cereals, rice, coffee, tea, sunflower, sugar cane, tobacco, ornamentals, and vegetables also used as acaricide and for control of mosquito larvae. 

One of the major reasons for the interest in insect pheromones is their potential for use to control pests. In one method a large number of traps, baited with small amounts of the sex attractant of the female insect, are used to trap enough males that the breeding of the insects is decreased. In another method that requires fewer traps, a small number of traps are used to monitor the population of the target insect. The best time to apply pesticides can be determined by monitoring these traps. In one case, 10 to 15 applications of a pesticide to control the pink bollworm still resulted in damage to 30% of a cotton crop. This was decreased to almost no damage with only one to two pesticide applications when the ideal times for these applications were determined by the use of traps. 

Carbaryl is a broad-spectrum insecticide that controls as many as 50 species of insects such as aphids, codling moths, plum curculios, leafhoppers, bollworms, armyworms, and boll weevils but is ineffective against houseflies, certain aphids, and spider mites. It is mainly used to control insects on cotton, apples, pears, and vegetables. Its oral LD50 in rats is 500-700 mg/kg. 

Fenobucarb is used for control of leafhoppers, plant hoppers, rice stem borers, rice bugs, bollworms, aphids on rice plants, sugarcane, tea, cotton, wheat, and vegetables. Its oral LD50 in rats is -640 mg/kg. 

The three top pests of cotton in Arizona are silverleaf whitefly, Lygus bug, and pink bollworm. In 1992, 1994, and 1995, heavy outbreaks of silverleaf whitefly occurred and contributed considerably to total pesticide applications in those years. Lygus is another pest, for which still old insecticides, such as acephate and endosulfan, are used. The largest plague of pink bollworms occurred in 1979, when on average 6.8 pesticide applications were applied to control this pest. 

From the data available on the Internet, it may not be possible to decouple Bt cotton from other factors that may have contributed to general changes in the use of cotton pesticides following Bt cotton adoption. Changes in specific substances, however, can be linked to Bt cotton adoption, such as the decrease in the use of Gossyplure, a pheromone for the control of pink bollworm, in Arizona. Similarly, the increase in Roundup usage in... 

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