Tag Archives: economic threshold

Cotton IPM Update – 5/26/2017

Posted on by

Cotton maturity across the Mid-Coast ranges from half-grown square to near cutout. Pest insects to be aware of include cotton fleahopper, bollworms, stink bugs and verde plant bugs. Continue to monitor young cotton for cotton fleahoppers until the first week of bloom.  If you have a decent fruit set at bloom of at least 70% retention, the cotton fleahopper should not be a pest after first bloom. By bloom, the cotton plant should have 80% or more of the harvestable fruit.  Since the fleahopper is not able to cause square loss to squares larger than… Read More →

Insects in the Field this Week – 5/12/07

Posted on by

There are a number of insects to be on the lookout for this week in the Grain Sorghum, Cotton and Soybeans of the Texas Coast. Grain Sorghum Grain sorghum fields vary widely with regard to crop maturity. The older fields are blooming and the youngest fields are 4-6 leaf. All sorghum fields should be monitored weekly for insect pests. The one insect that can cause problems season long is the Sugarcane Aphid. I have found them in low numbers along field margins and expect to see populations rise… Read More →

Cotton of the Mid-Coast – May 5, 2017

Posted on by

Cotton fields range from 1-2 leaf to half-grown square.  These fields need to be monitored for cotton fleahoppers.  I am finding cotton fleahoppers in cotton fields in populations ranging from 0-50 per 100 plants.  Most of these are adults moving into fields but some older fields have nymphs as well. Some fields need treatment to prevent economic yield loss or delayed harvest since the fleahoppers exceed the economic threshold of 15 per 100 plants.   Most field scouts monitor for cotton fleahopper by visually looking through the plant terminals for the adults and nymphs. We… Read More →

Sorghum of the Mid-Coast – May 5, 2017

Posted on by

Sorghum fields in Calhoun, Refugio and Victoria Counties should be scouted weekly for pest insects. This is especially true for the Sugarcane Aphid and Sorghum Midge.  We have ben finding sugarcane aphids in sorghum fields across the area but their numbers have been below threshold levels thus far. I have seen only occasional plants along the southern edge of sorghum fields with sugarcane aphids.  The most I have seen thus far is small colonies of less than 20 aphids on a less than 1% of plants. When scouting sorghum fields, I suggest marking… Read More →

Sugarcane Aphids in Grain Sorghum of the Texas Coast – 4/28/2017

Posted on by

The sugarcane aphid is now being found in grain sorghum fields of Calhoun, Refugio and Victoria Counties.  However, I have yet to see this aphid in numbers greater than 5 per leaf.  I expect their numbers will increase over the next few weeks and we will see economic levels in May. Several effective economic thresholds have been suggested for this pest.  I think all of them are similar and will result in field treatment at about the same time. To manage the sugarcane aphid, choose from these thresholds:… Read More →