Increased insecticide use in cotton may cause secondary pest outbreaks

Pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossy-piella (Saunders), invaded southern California's lower desert valleys during the 1966 cotton growing season. Because of the widespread, damaging infestation levels, multiple applications of broad-spectrum insecticides have been used to reduce losses. These insecticides have proved extremely toxic to beneficial insect populations and are suspected of inducing outbreaks of other cotton pests.