Cotton Insect Newsletter Vol. 20, No. 3, June 5, 2002 Call 1-877-629-1474 for Cotton Insect Hotline

Cotton Situation:  Cotton appears to be growing well in most areas of the state this week after some shower activity the previous week.  Unfortunately, some locations (like the PDREC farm) received no more than a sprinkle, so by the afternoon the corn plants will be rolled tighter than a good Cuban cigar.  Most cotton plants will now have 4-5 true leaves, and cotton that was planted in early April will only be a week or so from first bloom.  Who knows, there might be a bloom somewhere this week.   USDA estimates for cotton haven't been updated recently, but their estimate of cotton acreage for South Carolina was set at 290,000.  With the dry weather in some regions of the state, our acreage may not quite get there.   Cotton Scouting Schools: Today we are having a scout training school at the PDREC and about 50 people showed up.  On Thursday I will be in Orangeburg.  Interest in scouting appears to be lagging somewhat with the advent of Bt cotton.  Also, low prices and somewhat gloomy predictions from the weatherman may put a damper upon the event.   In past years, when price predictions have been gloomy, growers have tried to eliminate or reduce some of their costs.  Those who have employed consultants have often tried to get along without them, or may have only payed them to scout a few fields. They seem to be looking at consultants as a cost instead of an investment.  I believe they would be better served by cutting somewhere else.  A good consultant should be able to make money for you by allowing you to make timely insecticide treatments when they are needed.  Some also offer services that include weed control and nematode management.  Most growers lack the time to do all these things for themselves plus grow and market a crop. Some growers will also cut back on the amount of insecticides applied, or wait too long to apply a needed application.  Still, others will ignore economic infestations of some insect pests to save money on chemicals.   Most of the inputs you make to manage or control insect pest problems (when properly applied) will put money in your pocket above and beyond what you would have had by doing nothing or by cutting costs.  For example, if you have normally used a consultant and you have decided to avoid that cost in 2002, get prepared to spend a lot of time checking cotton fields and making those decisions that the consultant used to make for you.  You may wind up actually spending more money in some cases by trying to spray fields that you aren't too sure of, because you didn't have time to check.  For example, with stink bugs, problems can potentially arise in both Bt and conventional cotton varieties from first boll set through August, and even into September for later maturing cotton.  Insurance sprays would be expensive and if there were no economic infestations, beneficial insects would be about the only things killed.  I mentioned these same issues last year, but I feel like many didn't heed the warning and it cost them some coins.  You can't save money by giving up lint and lint quality to insect pests when the losses could have been avoided.  A good scouting program should be the foundation for every cotton grower's insect pest management program. Insect Situation: Thrips are still moving about, but those screaming hordes of thrips that came out of small grains have found their niches.  Cotton plants were often a target for these pests, and you can still see the damaged leaves on some older plants.  By now, there should be some healthy looking leaves growing in the terminals.  The recent string of 90-degree days have helped cotton plants win the battle.  That's not to say that there won't be some delays in growth and development.  Where terminal buds were severely damaged, it takes a couple of weeks for the plants to get back on track.  In the worst cases, such as in my untreated plots, there were quite a few plants killed by thrips. I have not heard anyone report on infestations of false chinch bugs this year.  For the last three or four years, there have been numerous calls concerning these bugs infesting seedling cotton.  They will occasionally kill small seedlings, when large numbers (30 or more per plant) come off of weed hosts that were killed by herbicides. When cotton begins squaring, scouts will need to begin looking at the percentage square set in such fields to track growth and development of the cotton plants.  Most healthy cotton plants should be setting 90% or more of squares during the first few weeks of squaring.  If you see 10% or more of the squares being shed, it would pay you to look more closely for the reason(s).  A few squares might shed as a result of physiological stress, but excessive square shed at this stage of the game usually results from insect damage by insects such as plant bugs, or even thrips.     Mitchell Roof  Extension Entomologist

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