On July 20, 1953, a light trap was installed at the Experiment Station at Tucumcari, 

 N. Mex., and 30 pink bollworm moths were taken from September 4 to October 16. Infesta- 

 tion was found in one boll in October . In 1954 the trap was again in operation and 21 moths 

 were taken from July 3 to September 10. No infestation was found in the fields in this 

 area in 1954. The light trap was thus able to pick up moths in flight before infestation 

 could be located in any of the fields. 



In connection with a pink bollworm control and eradication program begun in Arizona 

 in the summer of 1958, a series of light traps were used in Maricopa County, as well as 

 other counties south, and in the Tucson area. Pink bollworm infestation -was found in some 

 fields, being particularly heavy near Gila Bend. To determine extent of the infestation, 

 over 100 light traps, mostly of the argon type, were placed in locations with little known 

 or unknown infestations. In several cases, moths were taken in the fields where inspec- 

 tion records were negative. This gave the Plant Pest Control Division, Agricultural Re- 

 search Service, and State officials the much-needed information on the activity and 

 occurrence of moths, which aided in determining the extent of the area where quarantine 

 and control measures should be applied. Agricultural officials in California also coop- 

 erated in the extensive control program by placing over 100 argon traps in strategic 

 locations along the California- Arizona Stateline and at other nearby locations where 

 cotton was grown. This included areas from below Yuma, Ariz., up to Blyth, Calif., and 

 Parker, Ariz. No moths were taken in the traps in these outlying areas. 



The light trap program in Arizona and California was continued in the 1959 season, 

 with additional traps installed in the cotton areas in both States. The numbers of moths 

 taken in Arizona during the 1959 season were less than in 1958. The rigid control pro- 

 gram undoubtedly reduced the potential infestation. Several pink bollworm moths were 

 taken in a light trap in the Coronado National Forest area of Pima County, south of Tucson. 

 The location of the trap was some 20 miles from the nearest cotton, but wild cotton 

 ( Thurberia thespesioides) grew around the trap. There was every evidence that the moths 

 came from probable infestation in the wild cotton. No moths were ever taken in the light 

 traps in California. 



To obtain additional information on the activity of the pink bollworm moth in the air, 

 a series of airplane flights was made in 1954 in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, in 

 which a number of pink bollworm moths were taken (Glick 1957). To supplement the data 

 from altitudes below 200 feet, which heights were unsafe to make scheduled flights, 

 light traps were placed at 100 feet on a water tower, on the roof of a hotel in Brownsville, 

 Tex., and on the 85-foot catwalk level on an inactivated lighthouse at Port Isabel, Tex. 

 During the summer, 159 moths were taken in the trap on the hotel, 7 on the water tower, 

 but none on the lighthouse. It would appear that the factor of convection was important in 

 aiding the moths to reach the trap on the hotel, since the surrounding pavement generated 

 considerable radiation at night. The water tower, by contrast, was located in an open 

 area where less radiation was present. Port Isabel, where the lighthouse stands, is on a 

 promontory extending into the Gulf of Mexico. There is no cotton grown in this imme- 

 diate area, and as the prevailing wind is from a southeasterly direction (from over the 

 Gulf of Mexico), it would most likely account for no moths being taken in the trap. 



Light trap collections of pink bollworm moths have been recorded for a number of 

 years at the Brownsville Entomology Research Laboratory. Moths have been taken in some 

 years as early as January 3 and 12, which was some weeks before cotton squares were 

 locally available for propagation of the fir st spring generation. One female moth was taken 

 on March 5, 1956, in a black-light trap on the El Jardin Hotel roof 100 feet in height. 



PREDICTING POTENTIAL INFESTATION 



In 1950 the Plant Pest Control Division, A.R.S., U.S.D.A., initiated a Cooperative 

 Economic Insect Report, which is released weekly to all Federal entomological labora- 

 tories and agencies. Around 1954, light traps were used generally in this extensive survey. 



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