Tag Archives: Thrips

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 →

Squaring Cotton and Herbicide Damage

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Cotton maturity ranges from cotyledon to 1/2-grown square. Some fields need to be scouted for thrips, while others are beyond the thrips damage window and need to be checked for cotton fleahopper. Seedling cotton should be monitored for thrips until 5 or 6 true leaves are on the plants. I usually think the growing conditions in late April are good enough to overcome thrips feeding, but some fields have high numbers of thrips that are causing significant damage. Thrips are slender, straw-colored insects about 1/15 inch long, with… Read More →

Cotton IPM Update – 2-6 leaf cotton

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Cotton Maturity ranges from cotyledon to 6-leaf cotton with squares beginning to be visible. It has been fairly windy over the past few weeks and we need to be able to distinguish between thrips feeding and wind damage. Thrips can be sampled either visually by looking closely at the underside of leaves and the plant terminal, or by beating the plants into a white cup or on a black cloth. Links to two good videos demonstrate scouting thrips and thrips management are at the bottom of this post…. Read More →

Cotton IPM Update – Early Season Thrips

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Cotton maturity ranges from germinating to 2 leaf. Cotton planted in the last week has been emerging in  5-6 days. This quick emergence is due to warm temperatures and adequate soil moisture. Emergence to first square can take 27 to 38 days. We usually see the first squares 28-30 days after emergence. Thus, cotton planted March 27, emerged April 1-2 and should have the first squares by the first of May. The primary insect of concern is Thrips. Thrips are slender, straw-colored insects about 1/15 inch long, with… Read More →

Bean Thrips in Soybeans

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We have not been finding many insect pests in Soybean fields so far this season but there are a few things to keep an eye on. Wednesday I found Bean Thrips (Caliothrips phaseoli) in low numbers of less than 1 per leaflet on the leaves of soybean plants. The top 2 pictures show minimal feeding injury along the leaf veins. Bean Thrips can be found on the lower half of the plant first, and will move up the plant as populations increase. They tend to be found on… Read More →