Bruce Tabashnik News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

In 2006, a small airplane started buzzing each cotton field in Arizona, a thin, dust-like cloud trailing behind it. The dust was millions of insects called pink bollworms, and the flights were part of an audacious scheme to kill them off.Pink bollworms are insidious foes of cotton. Their larvae burrow into the plant’s seed pods, called bolls, destroying the fluffy fiber within. Where bollworms infest a field, farmers may spray insecticides many times a year to limit the damage. But the air-dropped insects released in Arizona had been exposed to radiation that left them sterile, so any pink b...

Bt crops keep many agricultural pests at bay and have drastically reduced the use of pesticides. But scientists warn that these valuable tools are in jeopardy due to overuse and abuse.

Bruce Tabashnik, a Regents Professor of Entomology whose discoveries helped eradicate the invasive pink bollworm from the United States and Mexico, is one of 120 new members elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

A new review examines global patterns of resistance to Bt crops and outlines strategies for maximizing sustainability of this important pest management tool.

View Comments CASA GRANDE — Dust from a nearby tractor blew thick across Paco Ollerton's face as he walked across a wide field sprinkled with leftover cotton from last fall's harvest. The tractor roared along his farm, tilling the soil to prepare for the next planting.  The cotton seeds Ollerton would plant were bright blue and shimmery, like tiny jewels in his hand. These seeds had been color-coded to signify that they were genetically modified.  Cotton farmers in Arizona started planting genetically modified cotton in 1996 in an effort to eradicate an invasive species of moth from A...