Vol. 11, Special Issue 11 (2022)

Bt cotton was mainly developed to control bollworms especially, American bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, because it has developed high level of resistance to various insecticides mainly to synthetic pyrethroids. At the same time pink bollworm (PBW) was also under check due to introduction of Bt cotton since 2002. Recent days the pink bollworm become major threat to Bt cotton production and its incidence level is increasing year by year in the south India. Use of chemicals for the management of pink bollworm is ineffective since the larvae after emergence enter into the green bolls within one to two hours of hatching. So other tools will be more useful for the effective management of PBW in cotton. As a cultural method, staggered sowing has a great impact, hence present study was carried out with six dates of sowing. Results revealed that, incidence level of pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella on both Bt and non-Bt cotton was less in normal sown cotton i.e., June I fortnight (FN) and it was increased as sowing delays from June I FN to September I FN irrespective of Bt and non Bt cotton but the infestation level in Bt cotton was less when compare to non Bt cotton in all the normal and late sown cotton crops.