Development Of An Advanced Mating

Mating disruption using the pheromone Gossyplure is a well known technique employed to control thepopulation of the Pink bollworm in cotton. This method of pest control reduces dramatically thedeployment of hard pesticides on cotton producing farm land.Current products and current deployment practices in most instances fall short of reliability, and costeffectiveness. This proposed work is targeted at solving the key factors which currently inhibitexpanded use of mating disruption for control of the Pink bollworm. We plan to formulate Gossyplurein the same polymer technology that the principal investigator used to successfully formulate attractantsfor other insect species. By increasing the amount of pheromone in each dispenser, higher than thatcurrently used, we hope to drastically reduce the point source application, thus addressing the costissue. The spacing of these dispensers will be varied and USDA/APHIS will measure the degree ofmating of monitor females and the concentration of pheromone in the air at each spacing. By varyingparameters including polymer type, loading, dispenser dimensions, and spacing, we plan to determineeffectiveness and cost reduction in small plots. Phase II will expand this technology to large scaleplots.