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This is Jack Bacheler at NCSU with the Wednesday Cotton Insect Update. It’s a hot Wednesday afternoon, August 12.

With the very hot weather of last weekend through Tuesday, cotton has rapidly progressed toward cutout, particularly in drier areas of the state. In some areas, cotton is well short of a optimum boll load and the aborting of small bolls runs the risk of plants with two maturity classes of fruit.

In cases where the crop has moved quickly toward maturity and is still only in the 5th or 6th week of bloom, a 10, 20%, or even 30% threshold for internally damaged bolls may be too low and may result in over-treatment. This would be a good time to "size bolls". Bolls that are larger than 1.25 inches in outside diameter in most cases can no longer be damaged by stink bugs. If 3/4 of the bolls i a plant fit into this class, an internal boll damage threshold should be along the lines of 40% or more. That's because we still recommend inspecting quarter-sized bolls, but most bolls on the plant are too larege to be damaged. Hopefully the predicted rainfall in some areas of the state will come along in time to prevent premature cutout.

Be sure to continue scouting for bollworms. We have had a number of reports this week of Bollgard and WideStrike cotton fields reaching the threshold of 3 or more bollworms 1/8-inch of more in length in squares and/or bolls. Most have been found associated with bloom tags.