R. Van Den Bosch

The Developing Program of Integrated Control of Cotton Pests in California

During the years immediately following World War II, cotton pest control in California’s San Joaquin Valley was dominated by the organochlorine insecticides (e.g., DDT, toxaphene, endrin). The persistence and high toxicity of these materials made them effective killers of the two key pests, Lygus hesperus Knight and Heliothis zea (Boddie). As a result, normally only one or two treatments per season were needed to effect satisfactory pest control at relatively low cost.

The Importance of Naturally-Occurring Biological Control in the Western United States

Sweet are the fruits of adversity—for from a patch of forest defoliated perhaps once in a century, to the yearly attacks of bolls by borers in manicured cotton fields, we find tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything, for the defoliated forests and rotten bolls tell a story of disrupted nature. To paraphrase Shakespeare here would be appropriate, for it was in “As You Like It” that Shakespeare reflected on nature and saw beauty and reason in what appeared ugly. Indeed, defoliated trees and rods of rotten bolls are unpleasant sights, but such products of insect outbreaks tell a story of disturbance, be it natural or man made. We also are made much aware of the potential destructiveness of unleashed phytophagous insect populations.