Cotton-Insect Control with Benzene Hexachloride, alone or in Mixture with DDT

Abstract

In field plot expts. at Waco, Texas, during 1946, benzene hexachloride dust containing 5% of the gamma isomer gave satisfactory control of the boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis, the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii, and the cotton leafworm, Alabama argillacea, but no control of the bollworm, Heliothis armigera. Mixtures of 5% DDT and benzene hexachloride (2.88-4.31% y isomer) were effective against the bollworm than was DDT alone, against the cotton aphid and cotton leafworm than benzene hexachloride alone, and in late season expts. gave adequate control of the boll weevil. Observations showed that such mixtures were also effective against the cotton fleahopper, Psallus seriatus, the rapid plant bug, Adelphocoris rapidus, thrips, stink bugs, and loopers. In one test the production was 1184 pounds of cotton per acre as compared with 99 lb. in the untreated check. The 2-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus bimaculatus, increased in some tests where the mixture was used, but addition of sulfur in one expt. aided in checking the increase. The data indicate that benzene hexachloride may be incompatible with Ca arsenate.