With an assumption that the larvae of cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni (Hübner), a secondary pest of cotton, Gossypium hirsutum (L.), could move between cotton plants in the field, we conducted a series of laboratory experiments to determine the larval movement, food choice, consumption, survival, and development on Bt (Bollgard II expressing Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab) and non-Bt cotton. On non-Bt cotto...

The presence of defects in cold mercerizing of cotton goods led to the creation of a new method, called hot mercerizing in which caustic soda solution is used at a high temperature. Hot mercerizing is successfully used in cotton blended with some other fibers. In cotton/polyester blend fabrics, this treatment serves a dual purpose: subjectively, it imparts a silklike soft handle to the po...

In some previously reported cases, transgenic crops producing insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have suppressed insect pests not only in fields planted with such crops, but also regionally on host plants that do not produce Bt toxins. Here we used 16 years of field data to determine if Bt cotton caused this "halo effect" against pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella) in s...

Experience is well known to affect sensory-guided behaviors in many herbivorous insects. Here, we investigated the effects of natural feeding experiences of Helicoverpa armigera larvae on subsequent preferences of larval approaching and feeding, as well as the effect of host-contacting experiences of mated females on subsequent ovipositional preference. The results show that the extent of exper...

Field experiments were conducted in 2012 and 2013 during drought conditions in South Texas and the Texas High Plains to test whether cotton water-deficit stress, age, and cultivars are moderating and interacting factors that affect cotton fleahopper, Pseudatomoscelis seriatus (Reuter) (Hemiptera: Miridae), abundance and yield loss. Irrigation and sequential plantings of several cultivars were u...

The anaerobic treatability and methane generation potential of three different cotton wastes namely, cotton stalks, cotton seed hull and cotton oil cake were determined in batch reactors. In addition, the effects of nutrient and trace metal supplementation were also investigated. To this purpose biochemical methane potential (BMP) experiments were performed for two different waste concentration...

It is commonly believed that colonization of early-season cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., by overwintered boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman, is concentrated on field margins. However, supporting experimental evidence is not available. In 1999 and 2000, we examined colonization patterns of overwintered boll weevils in Central Texas cotton on the bases of adult collections by a pneu...

This study was conducted to determine if reproductive growth in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) affects concurrent leaf development. Apparent photosynthesis (AP), stomatal conductance (Cs), soluble protein (SP), ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO), and chlorophyll (Chl) were monitored in four main-stem cotton leaves which emerged at approximately 2 week intervals. The leaf which emerged ...

Wheat, cotton, and peanut were arranged in three cropping sequences to determine the effects of fenamiphos (6.7 kg a.i./ha) and cropping sequence on nematode population densities and crop yields under conservation tillage and irrigation for 6 years. The cropping sequences included a wheat winter cover crop each year and summer crops of cotton every year, peanut every year, or cotton rotated eve...