Importance of damage caused by bugs and caterpillars on flowers and other cotton fructiferous organs in a three-level program of phytosanitary protection in Togo

Abstract

Bugs (Heteroptera), secondary devastators in comparison to caterpillars before 1980, constitute nowadays an important entomologic factor in the shedding of buds and new bolls. An evaluation of their damage and that of the caterpillars on shed organs was realized in an apparatus corresponding to a three method of protection. Statistical analyses (ANOVA) of results have shown in the first mode (NT) that the average of bugs’ damage on buds (49.25 ± 3.94) and new bolls (101.5 ± 6.65) is significantly higher than that of caterpillars (36.75 ± 3.25) and (51.75 ± 7.43) respectively. Treatments realized in the second mode (ST) allowed the reduction of the average of bugs’ damage by 31.50 ± 5.12 on buds and by 61.25 ± 2.75 on new bolls and that of caterpillars by 24.25 ± 2.62 and by 29.00 ± 4.43 respectively on buds and on bolls. The treatment of the third mode (PP) also led to a reduction of bugs’ damage by 24.25 ± 2.65 on buds and by 56.25 ± 7.20 on new bolls and respectively 16.25 ± 1.93 and 29.75 ± 3.06 the damage of caterpillars.