Tag Archives: Cotton Aphids
Cotton Insect Report
Cotton plant maturity ranges from 9-14 true leaves. We began seeing blooms in a few fields. The fields with blooms had 6-7 nodes above white flower, which shows the effect of drought stress. The water demand of a crop increases significantly as bloom nears and fruit production begins. If we do not get rainfall soon, expect to see wilting cotton fields in the afternoons. Fortunately, we have not seen insect pressure requiring insecticide applications. Cotton fleahoppers have been difficult to find in most fields. Few fields have more… Read More →
Squaring Cotton and Drought
Most cotton fields are squaring so the cotton fleahopper is the primary pest of interest in these fields. I use an economic threshold of 15 cotton fleahoppers per 100 plants. Adults and nymphs count the same. The cotton fleahopper will feed on the soft plant parts in the terminal of the plant. They cause injury when they feed on small squares causing the square to be “blasted” and then abscise, or fall off the plant. Once a square is larger than a pin head, it is considered safe… Read More →
Seedling Cotton Pests
Cotton ranges from emerging to 3-4 leaf plants. Weather forecasts are not optimistic for rainfall so treating for insect pests of seedling cotton is not likely profitable. The pests we can expect to find on young cotton includes thrips, aphids, and mites. I have not seen fields with insect populations requiring management. Seed treatments are typically good for 3 weeks following planting and most fields are were planted more than three weeks ago. The water needs for the plants are not very high right now so the primary… Read More →
Rain and Square Loss
Scouting fields this week we are finding each field is different from the next. Much of this has to do with how the rain affected the field. If the water got off the field or did not stand for too many days, the crop was better off. Fields that held water are more likely to have square losses. Many of these fields have lost the larger squares leaving fruit smaller than match-head square. An example of this is shown. I removed the leaves showing the lower four squares have… Read More →
Thrips and Fleahoppers in Some Cotton Fields
This week while scouting cotton fields in Calhoun, Refugio, and Victoria Counties, we have found thrips, cotton fleahopper, and aphids. A few young cotton fields have thrips above economic levels of 1-2 per true leaf. This is not a comment I am fond of making because, I rarely think of thrips as an economic pest in cotton fields of the Mid-Coast. The problem we are seeing is more of a factor of lack of rainfall than the presence of thrips. In most years, our cotton fields are growing… Read More →
