Scientists Able to Kill 99.9 Percent of Pink Bollworms

Researchers at the University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have devised a way to eliminate the pink bollworm as a threat to the state’s cotton industry, according to an article published on www.dailytech.com. By combining genetically modified (GM) cotton with a large influx of sterile moths, scientists were able to reduce the pink bollworm population by 99.9 percent during the four-year period from 2006 to 2009.

While Bt cotton is highly effective at eliminating the vast majority of bollworms, a small number are resistant and manage to survive. Resistant bollworms then breed with other resistant bollworms and create a new generation of pests that are resistant to the GM crops. To prevent that from occurring, scientists released a large number of sterile pink bollworms into a refuge area–an area consisting of non-GM cotton–which allowed the sterile insects to survive. The large population of sterile bollworms made it very unlikely that two resistant insects would mate with each other and create a new generation of resistant offspring. Making the approach even more effective is the fact that when fertile bollworms mate with infertile bollworms, the offspring is unable to reproduce.

Advertisement

Not only is this approach a positive development for the environment due to a greatly reduced need for insecticide spraying, it also greatly reduced the cost of the inputs. Between 2006 and 2009, cotton growers’ cost to control the pink bollworm decreased from $18 million to $172,000.
 

0