ADDRESS CHANGES: First and foremost, it is necessary that all those recipients of this newsletter please insure that the correct address is being utilized for mail delivery of this newsletter as well as any other Extension material. Primarily, Crosby County is being affected at this time but Floyd County may not be far behind. These returned pieces of mail cost our program $0.60 each time they are returned. Thanks for your help in this area.
ALSO, correct e-mail addresses are important. Some of those submitted were illegible and had no name attached, so may not have been delivered properly. Please submit a "practice" e-mail to the address above or to ipmcrosb@teaxgw.tamu.edu for verification of your intended address. Thank you.

HEAT UNIT ACCUMULATION UPDATE

As of May 23, 2002:

INSECT PROBLEMS:
False chinch bugs appeared in field margins west of Ralls and north of Farmer this week with several rows on the north and west sides of wheat and mustard weed turn rows showing signs of complete dehydration from the intense feeding. Whatever tissue was above-ground was completely dried-out. This is a wide-spread problem where mustard weeds (any alternate host) are drying down and seedling cotton is within hopping distance for this bug. Producers need to be on the lookout for these usually gregarious, very small, fast-moving, shiny black and silver bugs. They can be controlled with the foliar-applied insecticide products used for thrips control to kill two birds with one stone.

Several products are labeled but Acephate is the safest with the shortest re-entry level of those "better-working" products. This is compatible with Glyphosate products for weed control as well. However, I caution everyone to tank mix a small sample prior to a big load. Also, the addition of a pH amendment (sulfur-containing compound) to help acidify the solution is highly recommended.

Cotton is suffering from thrips infestations as well if there are any true leaves exposed and the alternate hosts of winter weeds or wheat are within field proximity. I mentioned killing two birds with one stone. Most cotton will need to be treated this week if there has been no other control measure applied. Seed treatment fields (Temik ®, Thimet®, etc.) will need to be watched closely to insure the product is providing control. Should the thrips be reproducing (presence of adults and young is verified), true leaves are showing feeding damage and an average of 1 thrips/true leaf is noted, justification certainly exists for foliar applied treatment. Most cotton is far enough behind after numerous cool mornings that additional setbacks will not be conducive to good production.

FIELD RESEARCH is set back to some degree due to the recent hail with two of the three cotton variety plots in Crosby county having to be re-planted this next week. Shorter season varieties will be utilized at this late date. We now have ample planting moisture with over 1.77" of rain in two days recorded in Crosbyton.

Bollworm, budworm and beet armyworm traps have been placed in both counties.

Crosby County traps are on the East Plains in the vicinity of Hwy's 82 and FM 28 (location #1), south of Ralls on FM 207 (location #2) and in Floyd County (location #3) three miles east of Floydada on Hwy 70. Trap catches this first week of trapping are:

This is the number of moths of these particular species that are attracted to pheromone over a week's time in these locations. Beet army worm moth numbers in Southern Texas have been reported in the thousands/week previously this year.
Would like to have more trapping locations, but can't afford the gas to sample the entire area.

General insect problems have been increasingly reported this week due to warm weather and rainfall events. Ticks and fleas in the yard are problematic. Grasshoppers are appearing in field margins and yards/gardens. Individual cases will be handled as they are called-in; we always welcome calls regarding arthropod problems, and, most importantly, solutions offered to those problems.

Beneficial numbers are fairly high in field margins at this time. After all, that is where most of the pests are located prior to moving into crop plants. The exception is small sorghum which contains corn leaf aphids in the whorl. Here again is a reservoir for beneficial insects as these aphids don't contribute significantly to economic damage, normally.

Boll Weevil trapping by the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation (TBWEF) remains low with only 0.012 weevils per trap in our High Plains zone as of May 26, 2002.

Pecan nut case bearer (PNCB) moths have peaked in traps in Crosbyton this week. No eggs have been sighted yet, but, we lost several nut clusters and individual nutlets to Monday's hailstorm. Peak egg lay and hatch should occur within 7-10 days following moth emergence ( May 19 to 22, 2002) with nut entry roughly 4-5 days following (May 23 to 27, 2002) which would necessitate those applications this week However, trees scouted twice this week have shown no eggs and no nutlet penetration. Traps are only a tool for approximation and actual scouting should be required prior to scheduling insecticidal treatment. There is very little justification for insecticidal use at this time for the test trees.

Some suspected Africanized honey bees have been captured south of Ralls this week by John McIlvey. More to follow as sample information is returned.

Steve Davis
Extension Agent-IPM
Crosby/Floyd Counties

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