ABSTRACT

Pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders), has been eradicated over a 7-state area in northern Mexico and the southern USA. Over this region, pink bollworm has been a key pest of cotton for 50+ years. The bi-national eradication programme grew out of a long-standing Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) containment/exclusion programme to protect cotton in the San Joaquin Valley of California, as well as numerous area-wide research and demonstration projects in southern California, Baja California, and Arizona. It included all contiguous infested production areas of the states of Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California in Mexico. It also included all contiguous generally infested areas of the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California in the USA. In this chapter we provide descriptions and key references for the technologies that were integrated in this multi-tactic, area-wide programme over its extensive geographic range. Technology described and used includes state programme-based central data management. The programme covered all activities including extensive GPS mapping, pheromone trap monitoring for adult populations, and the integration of all control operations. Operational information and data were shared among all participants as needed. Control tools included Bt-cotton, the release of sterile moths, pheromone mating disruption, cultural control, and on a very limited basis conventional insecticide application. Critical area-wide resistance management using sterile moth release, rather than planting susceptible cotton in refugia, was pioneered in this programme. Success as documented was possible over an enormous and diverse cotton production area because the technologies used were heavily researched, broad-based, and could be tailored to fit each major area. Uniform management within each state was coordinated bi-nationally. This programme was conducted sequentially over time. Summaries for each state provide measurements of progress, success, and experiences gained through time of operation.