The row crops in the Mid-Coast of Texas continues to progress at a normal rate. Cotton field maturity ranges from late squaring to the second week of bloom. Grain sorghum fields are from late bloom to near hard dough. And soybeans are blooming (R2), setting pods (R4) and filling pods (R5).

In all of these crops, stink bugs are one of the primary insect pests of concern.  After bloom, cotton fields should be checked for stink bug management by opening 1-inch bolls and checking the inside for evidence of stink bug feeding.  This feeding can be seen by inside boll wall warts or stained seed or lint. The chart below shows how the economic threshold changes over the course of bloom.

More on mid-season pests in Cotton HERE.

Sorghum fields are susceptible to stink bugs from bloom through soft dough, but as the seed matures, it is less affected by the stink bug feeding. The chart below demonstrates the stink bug economic threshold for three different grain sorghum yields, a $9/cwt value and a control cost of $8 per acre.  Control cost includes the cost of the insecticide and application cost (around $5/acre for ground application).

More Grain Sorghum pest management info HERE.

Red Banded Stink Bug. Photo by S. Biles.

Soybeans also enter the damage window for stink bugs at bloom but are most susceptible from pod fill to mature bean.  Economic thresholds for green and brown stink bugs is 36 bugs per 100 sweeps. If the stink bug species is the red banded stink bugs, the ET is 12 bugs per 100 sweeps.

More Soybean Management HERE.

Monday morning

Crop Scouting Meeting

When: 9 am, Monday, June 12

Where: FM 1679, just south of Sanders Rd.

We will be looking at how to scout for stink bugs.