HEAT UNIT ACCUMULATION UPDATE

As of July 25, 2002:

Cotton is doing extremely well where water is not an issue and weeds have been controlled. Blooms can be seen in all fields, especially where water is short or late. Dryland fields that have not had a good rain this year are about to finish.

Insect problems with bollworms in cotton are through for the time being. There still exists a small number of extremely large worms in all fields but they are certainly not worth treating the whole field. A few bollworm eggs are being reported from program fields but these are definitely "stragglers". I am of the opinion that we will see another flare-up about mid-August if historical evidence holds true. No aphids problems have been reported in any program fields even though some can be found in almost any field in the cotton plant terminal area. Several fields still contain levels of grasshoppers which continue to plague the margins and have required multiple applications. Most fields away from draws and creeks will not require treatment at all for this pest.

Bollworm treatment choices, as well as for other pests, can be obtained from Texas Cooperative Extension's Cotton Guide. This guide is available on-line or at your local county Extension Office.

Head worms (bollworms) in sorghum are similarly cycling out at this time after having infested early sorghum. These will need to be watched also in the future in late-planted sorghum fields.

Bollworm, budworm and beet armyworm moth catches as of July 25th have captured:

Moth trends (bollworm/budworm) are generally down over the last few weeks with corresponding egg-lay decreasing. BAW moths have risen overall by a small percentage but few larvae have been witnessed in program fields.

Pumpkin and ornamental gourd production is improving due to much-needed irrigation application. Scattered plants throughout the area are showing disease symptoms but overall pumpkins are doing very well. Portions of samples of disease-symptomatic plants submitted to the lab over the last two weeks have been found to contain the causal agent for Cucurbit Yellow Vine Disease (CYVD) which is devastating to watermelons, cantaloupes and other cucurbit crops. A proven vector of this disease in Oklahoma and Eastern Texas has been the squash bug which is sometimes prominent in large numbers in our fields. Samples of these local suspect arthropods have been submitted to the lab with no information reported at this time. Insect problems requiring pesticide intervention have not been reported from program fields this week even though some squash bugs, cucumber beetles and aphids are present.

Africanized honey bees (AHB) continue to be a source for concern with removal and/or control as the basic need. After reviewing web sources, the following individuals have surfaced as control possibilities for this area.
Dr. Jay Jones at 794-4567 (mentioned last week)
Tim Gafford at 792-4292
Greg Barnes at 799-3883
Scott Turner at 792-2317
Tuffy Woodfin at 794-9772

Boll weevil trapping data (Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation) has maintained in the Southern Plains/Caprock and in the Northern Plains Zones with 0.002 and 0.003 weevils/trap, respectively. The Southern High Plains/Caprock and the Northern High Plains Zones have treated approximately 330,000 acres of cotton for boll weevils as of July 21, 2002.

Thanks to Randy Arnold and John Woelsel for allowing the use of their facilities for the cotton turn-row meetings this last week. These are short meetings scheduled to answer any questions that producers might have regarding pest problems that may be of interest in cotton or other crops. We didn't have much in the way of attendance, but with the watering that had to be done and spraying with hooded sprayers, everyone is extremely busy. I thank all those producers who took time to attend these meetings.

Producer's field crop reports should be back on schedule this next week after the delays and rechecks due to spraying fields recently. Re-entry intervals are prescribed for safety of all who may be in proximity of a treated field and it is certainly on the minds of our staff when working with agricultural chemicals.

Steve Davis
Extension Agent-IPM
Crosby/Floyd Counties

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