FIELDAND
FORAGE
CROPS
FIELD
The information and recommendations in this newsletter are applicable to
North Carolina
and may not apply in other areas.
With any luck, thrips will remain the only potentially significant insect problem from cotton plant emergence through early to mid-June in North Carolina. All county extension cotton agents should have received a copy of a recent Southwest Farm Press article on at-planting options for thrips control via Keith Edmisten's Cotton Notes. You might also refer cotton producers to pages 140-142 of 1996 Cotton Information for additional information. Finally, the newly-revised Cotton Insect Scouting Guide, provides more detail on scouting thrips and other insects on both transgenic and conventional cotton.
If producers are forced to plant some of their cotton acreage after
May 15, rates of at-planting insecticides can be reduced some
(e.g., 5 pounds of Temik to 3 pounds) due to the shortened, but
important, protection window needed. Remember that late-planted
cotton can not afford additional factors (including thrips) which
delay maturity, so omitting the at-planting insecticide treatment
is not recommended. Foliar insecticide applications for thrips
following an at-planting application should be made with
discretion, as these treatments can increase the probability of
having to treat for June tobacco budworms or bollworms (except in
B.t. cotton).
In order to justify a foliar treatment for thrips, cotton producers
should confirm both the presence of possum-eared crinkled new
leaves and immature thrips (at least two thrips per plant). A hand
lens may be needed for these inspections to find the tiny yellowish
immature thrips. In most cases, when cotton plants reach the 6-7
true leaf stage with adequate moisture, thrips are no longer a
problem. Problems and scouting procedures for thrips are no
different for B.t. cotton than for conventional cotton.
Within the next week or so, we should begin to get the first
indications of insect populations in Florida and Georgia. Thrips,
early tobacco budworms, plant bugs and cotton aphids will be of
interest to us. I will try to pass along some of this information.
General trends in the Southeast often become established early.
Web page last updated on 29 April 1996 by Stephen J. Toth, Jr..