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Contamination of cottonseeds from aflatoxin, produced by a fungus that enters through the feeding sites of pierced bolls, could cause even further economic losses – especially when cottonseed prices are hovering in the $300 a ton range and Arizona’s cotton acres are estimated to increase more than 50 percent this year.
Chemical efficacy trials
Brown soon decided to focus her graduate research exclusively on this escalating problem. From 2012-2013, she conducted chemical efficacy trials on commercial farming operations in Central Arizona.
Her on-farm trials raised more questions than delivered answers and implied that the benefits from BSB management attempts increased problems and costs associated with other pests. Brown continued her experiments at the UA’s Maricopa Agricultural Center (MAC) in 2014 and 2015.
Her findings from those experiments verified that bolls were most susceptible to damage within the first four to six days of feeding. Also, young bolls sustained more damage.
