pink bollworm

noun

: a small dark brown moth (Pectinophora gossypiella) whose pinkish larva bores into the flowers and bolls of cotton and is a destructive pest in most cotton-growing regions

Examples of pink bollworm in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For every one wild pink bollworm, Tabashnik said researchers needed to release 200 sterile moths, which would not have been logistically practical unless the pink bollworm population hadn't already been diminished. —Amanda Morris, The Arizona Republic, 29 Apr. 2021

Now, over a decade later, the pink bollworm is gone. —Amanda Morris, The Arizona Republic, 29 Apr. 2021

Not every pink bollworm was susceptible to the toxin. —Amanda Morris, The Arizona Republic, 29 Apr. 2021

Over the years, the success of screwworm eradication has inspired scientists to apply the sterile-insect technique to other agricultural pests such as the Mexican fruit fly, the Mediterraean fruit fly, and the pink bollworm. —Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 26 May 2020

The pink bollworm moth has been eradicated after ravaging U.S. cotton crops for more than a century. —Jennifer Smith, WSJ, 26 Oct. 2018

Cotton farmers in Maharashtra have lost about 120 billion rupees after pink bollworm damaged crops, Dhawale said. —Bloomberg.com, 12 Mar. 2018

That was the first release of insects with any sort of genetic modification in the United States, and three years of releases pretty much eliminated pink bollworms in the area. —Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 8 Sep. 2017

Then, beginning in 2006, researchers released irradiated and sterile pink bollworms—also from Oxitec—into cotton fields in Arizona. —Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 8 Sep. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1906, in the meaning defined above