PHEROMONE TRAP FOR MONITORING INSECTICIDE RESISTANCE IN THE PINK-BOLLWORM MOTH (LEPIDOPTERA, GELECHIIDAE) - NEW TOOL FOR RESISTANCE MANAGEMENT

A rapid technique using sex pheromone and insecticide-laced traps was developed for measuring insecticide resistance in pink bollworm moth, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders). This method was developed in the laboratory by allowing males to fly upwind to a sex-pheromone source in a wind tunnel, and then trapping them on sticky cards (laced with various doses of pyrethroid insecticides) inserted into standard delta traps. Using this technique, populations of adult male P. gossypiella trapped in the field were shown to be more resistant to permethrin and fenvalerate in fields frequently treated with pyrethroids than in fields with little or no exposure to these insecticides. The new method eliminates handling of insects that is involved in other methods of assessing toxicity, and is compatible with the current practice of monitoring populations with pheromone traps. It was important to test and standardize duration of males'' postcapture exposure to insecticide-laced sticker, temperature that males were exposed to after capture, quantity of sticker used, and age of males when captured.