Tag Archives: Cotton

Cotton IPM – Cotton Fleahopper and Aphids

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Most of the cotton fields in the Mid-Coast are squaring and the Cotton Fleahopper is the primary insect pest of squaring cotton. Early this week, we started finding more adult fleahoppers in cotton fields.  Some of these fields had 6 to 8 adult fleahoppers in 20 plants (30-40 per 100 plants).  This is well above my treatment threshold of 10 per 100 plants. Interestingly enough, adjacent fields had much fewer cotton fleahoppers.  This difference between fields demonstrates the importance of scouting each field and making treatment decisions on… Read More →

Cotton IPM – Thrips, Aphids and Fleahoppers

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Cotton Maturity ranges from seedlings to 12-14 node squaring cotton. In some cases, these are in the same field. My cotton on the research farm in Port Lavaca has two emergence dates with older plants having 2 leaves and newly emerging plants coming up daily. I have noticed seedling disease being fairly common in some fields. Notice two of the plants in the above picture are dying. This demonstrated the importance of seed applied fungicides and variety choice. Cotton should be scouted for thrips through the 4-5 leaf… Read More →

Cotton in Bloom and IPM

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Many of the cotton fields in South Texas are in bloom. Once cotton is blooming, we need to change our scouting methods. Plant water use is increasing rapidly and the insects that cause yield loss are changing. Now is the time to start counting Nodes Above White Flower (NAWF). This will help you know how the crop is progressing and when insects stop being an economic pest. Count NAWF by finding the first position white flower and counting the number of nodes (branches) above the branch with the… Read More →

Persistent Cotton Fleahoppers

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For the past few weeks many fields have been inundated with cotton fleahoppers.  We began an insecticide control trial on May 10. The field averaged 5.3 cotton fleahoppers in 20 plants, well above the economic threshold of 2 fleas per 20 plants. The graph below is data from the trial I have been conducting. The blue arrows indicate treatment timings. The red line is insect counts from untreated plots.  During this trial, no differences were found between treatments due to variability within treatments. Throughout the trial, 86% of… Read More →

Squaring Cotton and the Cotton Fleahopper

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Most of the cotton in the Mid-Coast of Texas is squaring. During the squaring period, the primary insect pest of cotton in South Texas is the cotton fleahopper. This insect can cause small square abscission. The fruit loss can reduce yield and delay crop maturity. The cotton fleahopper adult is about 1/8 inch long, with piercing-sucking mouthparts and a flattened body (Fig. 16). Adults are active flyers; they readily flit within the cotton canopy when disturbed, which makes insect sampling a challenge. Their eggs are not visible because… Read More →