This document discusses several major insect pests of cotton in Pakistan, including cotton jassid, whitefly, thrips, mealybug, dusky cotton bug, and red cotton bug. For each pest, it provides the scientific name, description of life stages, life cycle, mode of damage, and control methods (cultural, biological, chemical). It aims to inform readers about integrated pest management of these key cotton pests.

2. Insect Pests of Cotton
Submitted by:
M.Shoaib
Semester:
7th (Entomology)
Course title:
Integrated Pest Management
College of Agriculture
BZU bahadur campus
Layyah
2

3. Insect Pests of Cotton
Sucking Insects
 Cotton Jassid
 Cotton Whitefly
 Cotton Thrips
 Cotton Mealy Bug
 Dusky Cotton Bug
 Red Cotton Bug

4. Cotton Jassid
Scientific name: Amarasca bigutulla
Family: Cicadellidae
Order: Homoptera
Status: Most destructive pest of American Cotton.
Distribution: Throughout the cotton growing areas of the Punjab, Pakistan and India.
Food Plants: Besides cotton it is also feeds on brinjal, potato, bhindi and some wild
plants such as hollyhock, kangi booti.
ETL: 1 per leaf

5. Description of Stages
Adult: In Summer, adults are greenish yellow with a blackspot present on the tip
of each forewing.
Egg: Yellowish white.
Nymph: Nymphs wedge-shaped and are very active.

6. Life Cycle
Egg
NymphAdult
7-21 Days
6 nymphal instars
Lay 25-30 Eggs
Hatching in 4-11 Days
Up to 3 months

7. Mode of damage
 Damage to the crop is caused by the adults as well as by the nymphs.
 Suck cell sap from the underside of the leaves.
 The leaf first becomes yellowish due to pest attack and later gives cup shaped
appearance.
 The number of boll formation is reduced. The lint quality is deteriorated.
Injury to plants:
 The loss of cell sap due to sucking.
 The injection of toxins while sucking.

8. Control
Cultural:
 Cotton crop should be earlier and excessive use of fertilizer should be avoided.
 Clean cultivation and removal of weeds.
 Hairy varieties are less attacked by jassids.
Biological:
 Chrysoperla sp. and the spiders are good predators of its nymphs and adults.
Chemical: 1- Thiamethoxicam 3.0g/kg seed 2- Imidacloprid 5g/kg seed
3- Diafenthiuron 200-500g/acre 4- Buprofezin 500g/acre

9. Cotton Whitefly
Scientific name: Bemisia tabaci
Family: Aleyrodidae
Order: Homoptera
Status: Most notorious pest insect of cotton and transmits 50 plant viruses
on the 70 different plants. It become more important in Pakistan as
it transmit CLCV.
Distribution: Tropical and subtropical areas of Pakistan and India.
Food Plants: It attacks 600 plants over 70 families of crop and weeds including
cotton, sunflower, jute, bhindi, tori, cauliflower, cabbage etc.
ETL: 5 per leaf.

10. Description of Stages
Adult: Body is yellowish and is covered with white, fine waxy powder.
Egg: Freshly laid eggs are creamy white in color and changed to brown before
hatching.
Nymph: Nymphs are yellowish to brown in color. 4 nymphal instars are found. The
last instar is also called as pupa.

11. Life Cycle
Egg
Nymph
Adult
Lay 110 Eggs
Hatching in 3-5 Days
9-14 Days from April-Sept
17-81 Days from Oct-March2-5 Days in summer
24 days in November

12. Mode of damage
The whiteflies are very harmful insects and pose great threat to agriculture across the
world including Pakistan. Its damage is following ways:
Sucking cell sap
 The young ones and adults suck the leaf sack from phloem tissue by remaining on
the under surface of leaf.
 Leaves turn yellowish-brown and fall-off.
Injection of toxic saliva
They inject saliva into the plants that alters the abnormal physiological processes
and thus results in plants disorder.
.

13. Continue……
Sooty mould:
They produce enormous amount of honeys dews and throw on various plant
parts. This sticky material helps in the germination of sooty mould.
Cotton leaf curl virus(CLCV):
White fly is responsible for the transmission of about 50 viral diseases on 70
different plants including cotton leaf curl virus.

14. Control
Cultural:
 Avoid cultivation of alternate hosts near the cotton field and destroy weed
hosts and crop stubbles including cotton sprouts as they may harbor whitefly
and virus.
 Avoid application of high amount of nitrogenous fertilizers in the cotton crop.
 Avoid over-irrigation in the cotton field.
Pressurized water may be helpful in effectively killing of adults of whitefly.
Biological:
 Chrysoperla sp. And Brumus sp. Are effective predators of its nymphs and adults.
 Eretmocerous massii and encarsia sp. Can cause 33% and 5-10% parasitism
respectively to its adults and pupae.
Chemical: 1- Imidacloprid 5-7 g/kg seed 2- Diafenthiuron 200-500 ml/acre
3- Buprofezin 500 g/acre

15. Cotton Thrips
Scientific name: Thrips tabaci
Family: Thripidae
Order: Thysanoptera
Status: Major pest of cotton.
Distribution : It is world-wide in distribution and found throughout Pakistan and India.
Food Plants: Besides cotton ,Onion and Garlic it also attacks on several plants
including Cabbage , Cauliflower , Potato, Tobacco ,Cucumber etc.
ETL: 8-12 per leaf

16. Description of Stages
Adult: Adults are slender, yellowish brown or blackish.
Egg: The female lays kidney shaped eggs singly.
Nymph: Nymphs are pale in colour.

17. Life Cycle
Egg
NymphAdult
Lay 50 Eggs
Hatching in 4-9 Days
4-6 Days
4 nymphal instars
16-28 days

18. Mode of damage
It is a serious pest of cotton in hot and dry conditions. Both adult and nymphs attack
usually eat cotton seedlings by leaf rasping the pest sucks up the exuding sap. In
case of severe pest attack on cotton, leaves become wrinkled and fall off and case
opening of premature bolls. Lower leaves are severely damaged during attack.
Infested leaves become silvery white, then dirty white and ultimately become
crumple shape. The plant bear very few bolls.

19. Control
Chemical: 1- Imidacloprid 75 ml/acre 2- Diafenthiuron 200-250 ml/acre
3- Acetamiprid 125 g/acre

20. Cotton Mealy Bug
Scientific name: Phenococcus gossypiphilus
Family: Pseudococcidae
Order: Hemiptera
Status: Important pest of cotton.
Distribution: Pakistan, USA, South Africa, Brazil.
Food Plants: Polyphagous. Parthenium, Itsit, Datura, Milkweed, cotton, Okra.
ETL: Visual.

21. Description of Stages
Adult: Female adult is wingless and body is covered with white mealy powder
while the male has transparent wings.
Egg: Eggs are oblong and light yellow.
Nymph: They are oval and yellow with prominent reddish eyes .

22. Life Cycle
Egg
NymphAdult
Lay 150-600 Eggs
Hatching in 3-9 Days
22-25 Days
3 nymphal instars
Males: 2 Days
Females: 10 days

23. Mode of damage
Damage is caused by the nymphal stage and adult females only
 Sucking cell sap.
 Honey dew secreted by the pest encourages development of black sooty mold.
 Injection of toxic saliva.
 Secretion of cottony wax.
 Bolls are deformed, fewer and smaller in size in affected plants.

24. Control
Cultural:
 Uprooting of infested plants.
 Cutting of infested leaves and twigs and there burial deap in the soil
 Remove alternate host plant
 Clean cultivation of weeds
Biological:
 Chrysoperla carnea, lady bird beetle, paper wasp, red wasp.
Chemical: 1- Imidacloprid 2- Chlorpyriphos
3- Buprofezin

25. Dusky Cotton Bug
Scientific name: Oxycarenus laetus
Family: Lygaeidae
Order: Hemiptera
Status: Minor pest of cotton.
Distribution: Cotton growing areas of Pakistan and India.
Food Plants: Cotton, Bhindi, Hollyhock.

26. Description of Stages
Adult: Adults are dark brown with dirty white transparent wings and measure
and measure about 4-5mm in length.
Egg: White and cigar shaped eggs. Laid singly or in clusters.
Nymph: They resemble the adults except being smaller and having prominent
wing pads in place of wings.

27. Life Cycle
Egg
NymphAdult
Lay 100-150 Eggs
Hatching in 5-10 Days
31-40 Days31-40 Days

28. Mode of damage
 Its main importance lies in the fact that the adults and nymphs when crushed at
the time of ginning to the lint and thus lower the market price of cotton.
 Nymphs and adults suck cell sap from immature seeds, which may not ripen and
lose colour and remain light weight.

29. Control
Biological:
 Triphleps tantilus is effective parasitoid on its nymph.
Chemical: 1- Acetamiprid 125 g/acre 2- Imidacloprid 80 ml/acre
3- Diafenthiuron 200-500 ml/acre 4- Carbosulfan 500 ml/acre

30. Red Cotton Bug
Scientific name: Dysdercus koenigii
Family: Pyrrhocoridae
Order: Hemiptera
Status: Minor pest of cotton in the punjab
Distribution: Widely distributed in Pakistan and India.
Food Plants: Cotton, Bhindi, Maize, millet, wheat, gram , hollyhock , clovers etc.

31. Description of Stages
Adult: Bugs are elongated slender insects and crimson red with white bands
across the abdomen.
Egg: Spherical and bright yellow.
Nymph: Young nymph have flabby abdomen but later they become more slender
and develop black markings on the body.

32. Life Cycle
Egg
NymphAdult
49-89 Days
5 nymphal instars
Lay 100-130 Eggs
Hatching in 7-8 Days
Up to 3 months

33. Mode of damage
 Both adult and nymph of this pest suck cell sap from leaves and green bolls of cotton.
 Heavily attacked bolls open badly and the lint is of poor quality .The seed produced
may also have low germination and less oil contents.
 Bugs stain the lint with their excreta or body juices as they get crushed in the ginning
factories .Thus this pest is also called as Cotton Stainer.
 The staining of the lint; which is usually followed by the growth of certain bacteria
inside the bolls, is also believed to be initiated by the bugs.

34. Control
Biological:
 Predacious bugs such as Antilochus cocqueberti.
 Harpactor costalis are predators of nymph and adults.
Chemical: 1- Acetamiprid 125 g/acre 2- Imidacloprid 80 ml/acre
3- Diafenthiuron 200-500 ml/acre 4- Carbosulfan 500 ml/acre