Monitoring of cotton bollworms through pheromone traps and impact of abiotic factors on trap catch

Adult populations of cotton bollworms were monitored through pheromone traps for five successive seasons. The peak activity of H. armigera adults was observed from September to November, while it was from November to January for pink bollworm in different seasons. The tobacco caterpillar, S. litura showed wide variations regarding the peak incidence. Minimum temperature and rainfall were found to exert highly significant negative influence on pheromone trap catch of H. armigera while, all the weather parameters except morning relative humidity had highly significant negative influence on the pheromone trap catch of pink bollworm and tobacco caterpillar.