The use of a genetic marker in pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders), moths could provide a means of identifying the F1 progeny of crosses between released moths as well as crosses between released and native moths. The ability to identify F1 progeny of these crosses would help program managers make decisions about release rates and locations of sterile moths. A sooty strain of pink bollworm obtained from ARS was introduced into the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) pink bollworm rearing facility. We monitored changes in the sooty strain to APHIS rearing methodology over nine generations. The sooty strain had significantly lower rates of female fecundity, egg hatch, and pupal yield per rearing container than two established APHIS strains. However, as the season progressed, the sooty strain showed numerical gains in fecundity, hatch, and yields per container, indicating that the sooty strain was adapting to the APHIS rearing system (or conditions). As the sooty strain adapted to the APHIS rearing regime, a signifcant increase in heterozygous individuals was noted. Field cage and field test results showed no significant difference between the two strains in female mating success or male response to pheromone traps. Furthermore, radiation sterilization caused a significant reduction in male response to pheromone traps when compared with males that had not been irradiated in both sooty and APHIS strains.