Large‐scale field trials conducted inthreegovernorates in Egypt during the 1987 cotton season showed that two or three applications of pink boilworm pheromone (formulated as either microcapsules or hollow fibres) integrated with one or two applications of conventional insecticides gave as good a control of bollworms as did four or five applications of the insecticides alone. Estimated yields per feddan in two governorates, Fayoum and Dakahlia, averaged from 998 to 2164 kg in the pheromone‐treated blocks compared to 1076 and 1628 kg in the insecticide‐treated control blocks. While no significant differences in yields were detectable in the Fayoum, an increase of up to 17% in seed cotton weight was estimated in the pheromone‐treated fields in Dakahlia. This increase in yield was attributed to enhanced hybrid vigour as a result of introducing beehives into the pheromone‐treated fields during the early stages of flowering and fruit setting. The bees, in addition to cross‐pollinating the cotton flowers, produced over 10 metric tonnes of honey. These excellent results were obtained in spite of a general increase in pink boilworm infestation throughout the governorate as deduced by a comparison of green boll infestation between 1986 and 1987. The results by a comparison of green boll infestation between 1986 and 1987. The results also underlined the importance of early season pheromone treatments, since the treatments at Dakahlia went on at an earlier stage of crop development than in either Kafr El Sheikh or Fayoum.