Tag Archives: Insecticides

Fall Armyworms in Bermudagrass Hay Fields

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All summer we have seen high numbers of fall armyworms in bermudagrass hayfields and pastures. Last week, I sprayed a Fall Armyworm insecticide control trial in a bermudagrass hayfield near Port Lavaca. To further complicate things, the field received rainfall 3 days after applications. This typifies what we have been experiencing this year. When scouting with a sweep net, we found very high numbers of fall armyworms. Pre-treatment  counts averaged around 250 worms per 5 sweeps. The economic threshold I use is 25 per 5 sweeps. In this… Read More →

Cotton IPM Update – 5/26/2017

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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 →

Cotton Fleahopper in Young Cotton – 4/28/2017

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We have squaring cotton on the Texas Coast and that means we need to be scouting fields for cotton fleahopper. While other pests are present, such as aphids and thrips, the cotton fleahopper has the greatest potential to reduce yield or delay harvest. Aphids are substantially below a treatment threshold of 50 aphids per leaf and most cotton is beyond the damage window for thrips. The cotton fleahopper economic threshold I use is 15 cotton fleahoppers per 100 plants.  I do not distinguish between adults and nymphs for… Read More →

Crop Scouting Field Meeting – June 27

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Monday, June 20,  8:30 a.m. Location: Calhoun County, Cotton field at corner of Hwy 87 and FM 2433. Topics: Scouting Cotton and Sorghum

Insecticide Choices for Sugarcane Aphids in 2016

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Sugarcane aphid populations are on the rise in the Rio Grande Valley.  I suspect that we will see a similar increase in aphid numbers as the sorghum exceeds 30-40 days after planting and the insecticide seed treatments wear off.  Thus, we should review the insecticides we will have for control of the sugarcane aphid this year. The choices for insecticide control of sugarcane aphids is a little different than last year.  When a sugarcane aphid population reaches a treatable level (50-125 aphids per leaf), you have the same… Read More →