The cotton boll contains the seeds of the plant to which long, white fibres are attached. The cotton industry takes advantage of these fibres to spin yarns for textile production.

This project has produced data which confirmed past findings of the robustness of cotton to compensate for levels of insect damage exceeding those of current industry thresholds for Helicoverpa and mirids.

Research has shown that damage caused by chewing and sucking pests does not necessarily lead to a yield loss in cotton.