MULTAN: An expert recommended cotton growers to apply PB Ropes against Pink Bollworm attack as survey conducted by CCRI teams showed its attack on isolated places on the crop. Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI) Director Dr Zahid Mahmood, in a statement issued here on Wednesday, said that larvae emerged from pink bollworm eggs and enters the boll from its distal end after half an hour of its birth.

The larvae turns it into Rossetti flower, he said adding that petals of the boll closes down due its saliva and starts eating the seed from within which results difficulty in identification of affected cotton fruit.

A number of larvae can be present inside and that is why the spray does not affect which makes control of the Pink Bollworm strenuous, Dr Zahid informed.

Dr Zahid recommended that one pheromone trap should be installed in five acre block for monitoring of bollworm adding that 6-8 robes should be used in per acre for its management.