Impact of Ginning Mills and Weather Parameters On Population Of Pink Bollworm Pectinophora Gossypiella(Saunders)

In the recent times pink bollworm has emerged as a serious pest of cotton in India causing
ecological and economic damage. For proper management of pink bollworm it is very important
to know source of infestation along with survival during offseason. Monitoring of pink
bollworms was done in 2018 and 2019 in Adilabad district of Telangana. For this market area of
Adilabad having 10 ginning mills and 15 villages surrounding the mills with an radius of 5, 10
and 15 km were selected. In ginning mills average moth catches started in September measuring
0.20moths/trap/week and a peak was observed on 26 th March and 1 st April recording 158.2moths/
trap/week. There it declined to 120moths/trap/week during the end of April then became
negligible by July. Average moth catches at the field started in August measuring
21.27moths/trap/week. The peak level of adult activity in the season was recorded in 3 rd week of
February recording 117.13 moths/trap/week. The later population became negligible by June.
Temperature showed a significant negative correlation with trap catches of month/week. A
decrease in the number of moth catches/trap/week was observed with an increase in radius from
ginning mills. Average catches of male moths in traps set at 5, 10, and 15 km away from ginning
mills revealed 42.63, 35.68, and 29.94 moths/trap/week respectively.