The rearing facility is owned by California cotton growers with oversight by the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

 “Navel orangeworm is an extremely devastating pest in pistachios and almonds,” said Clyde Sharp of Roll, Ariz., a state and national cotton leader and advocate of SIT in PBW eradication.

Sharp says some California tree nut growers spend up to $250 per acre annually controlling the Navel orangeworm.

He discussed this issue during the 2015 Arizona Cotton Conference held in Flagstaff, Ariz. in June.

PBW eradication success

Here is how SIT has worked with PBW in cotton.

After reared PBW moths are sterilized at the Phoenix rearing facility, the moths are loaded onto Cessna aircraft and released over cotton fields. The steriles, and any natives in the field, attempt to mate, yet unsuccessfully.

This is followed by the natural death of the native moth without producing offspring. The reproduction cycle ends.

The pink bollworm damages squares and bolls with the latter damage the most serious. According to the University of California IPM website, a larva burrows through the boll as it cuts and stains the lint. The result is severe lint quality loss.

Aerial dispersal of sterile PBW has been conducted for years over cotton fields in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas.

Yet sterile moths are not the only bullet in the chamber towards eradication. Other critical components are Bt cotton, pheromone mating disruption, insecticides, plow down, trapping, and other practices.

Combined, these practices create an integrated pest management approach which has rapidly reduced native PBW numbers in the Far West and Southwest over the last decade.