Farmers told to beware of insidious pink bollworm attack.

MULTAN -- Agriculture experts have warned cotton growers against threat of pink bollworm, a pest considered dangerous due to its attack being insidious in nature.

'It is hard to assess that the crop is under attack by pink bollworm as the cotton boll apparently looks healthy but actually the attacking pest would be eating inside to make it hollow,' said a press release issued by agriculture spokesman on Thursday. The symptoms emerge at the time of picking of cotton flowers when farmers find that the boll is not opening properly to deliver fluffy and fibrous flower, he told.

The cotton flower from an affected boll acquires bad color and affects quality and production of cotton, the spokesman said and added that Bt cotton varieties were also experiencing rise in pink bollworm attack for the last three years. Currently, the crop is passing through a delicate stage wherein it has plenty of bolls, flowers and buds and it is high time to protect the resource from potential attack by pink bollworm, he added.

He said, the pink bollworm attacks flowers and bolls right after it comes out of the eggs and this precisely is the right time to hit back and kill the bollworm. Since, it attacks inside bolls, it becomes hard to get desired results...

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