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The synthetic sex pheromone (gossyplure) of the pink bollworm was evaporated into the atmosphere of three cotton fields during an entire growing season. The resulting disruption of premating pheromone communication between male and female moths led to a reduction in the population of larvae infesting cotton bolls. This larval control was comparable, in terms of both effectiveness and expense of materials used, to the control achieved in ten comparison fields by growers using conventional insecticide applications.

Pheromone-releasing females of the closely related noctuid moths Trichoplusia ni and Autographa californica attract mainly males of their own species. Sex-pheromone-concentration specificity appears to be an important reproductive isolating mechanism for these two species. Apparently, both species utilize the same pheromone, cis-7-dodecenyl acetate, for mating communication, but T. ni utilizes a higher level than does A. californica. Traps releasing amounts of cis-7-dodecenyl acetate that are highly attractive for males of one of the species catch very few males of the other species.