The boll weevil is a major pest of cotton in Brazil. The pest is not "indigenous" to Brazil but it has biologically adapted with high reproduction capabilities and the capacity to widely disperse and survive between crop cycles in the arid, semi-arid and tropical conditions of Brazil. During the last 15 years, the boll weevil has increased pest control costs and caused production losses to Brazilian growers. In order to produce cotton in the presence of this species (Anthonomus grandis Boh.), growers had to develop methods and adjust production practices with various Integrated Pest Management (IPM) control techniques.

With the objective to assess boll weevil control efficacy of pheromonalbased products, traps and Boll Weevil Attract and Control Tubes (BWACTs) were installed in historically weevil-infested fields. The test results demonstrated that where the BWACTs were installed at preplanting, there were:

$ 3X less weevil damaged squares in the fields,

$ a reduction in the number of insecticide sprays for the control of the cotton pest complex and

$ an increase in yield when compared to the "Conventional"

IPM Program treatment.

"Collecting pans" placed under installed BWACTs and BWACTs coated with glue and/or cottonseed oil at stalk destruction, exhibited an average boll weevil attraction and kill of 1067.5 weevils per day. The BWACTs demonstrated that they are efficient for attracting and killing weevils at the end of the crop; this significantly reduced the population, lowered the potential for damage to the subsequent cotton crop and reduced the migration of weevils into "near-by and distant" refugios for surviving between crops. The use of the BWACT as a component in IPM programs provides significant advantages to a cotton production system.