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Vol. XXIV, No. 4

Rains continued through the latter half of May to make it one of the wettest Mays on record. Many growers were able to report rain amounts from 6 to 9 inches on their farms. Also high winds occurred on several occasions which damaged some of our early planted cotton. These fields were replanted and are up to a good stand now.

Our cotton is generally later than some years, but overall stands look excellent. We now have cotton just emerging to cotton with 4 squares per plant (9 leaves). Most fields are now in the 3 to 4 true leaf stage.

Thrips migrations into cotton began around May 10 and continued through June 5. Earlier planted cotton has been subject to these migrations the longest and shows more damage than the late planted fields. In some fields the thrips and blowing sand damage has made it difficult to determine the leaf stage which growers use to decide when to conclude broadcast Roundup applications. Thrips counts have been variable ranging from 0.5 to 17 thrips per plant. The threshold is generally considered to be when the number of thrips exceed the number of true leaves on the plant; therefore on 3 leaf cotton, thrips would have to exceed an average of 3 thrips per plant to justify a treatment. Many growers in past years have treated for thrips when making a Roundup applications. Products commonly used have been Orthene, Bidrin and dimethoate.

Beet armyworms have been found in 2 to 4 leaf cotton feed on cotyledons and true leaves in Cotton Center, Hale Center and Kress areas.

The Texas Boll Weevil Foundation will be placing one trap per cotton field in Hale and Swisher Counties over the next few weeks to track weevil populations and collect historical information as they move into an eradication program in September. Wes Jones is our Northern High Plains Zone Manager.

Plains Cotton Growers are also monitoring boll weevil traps again this year. For the period June 4 - June 8 no traps in Hale or Swisher Counties exceeded 4 weevils per trap. About 20% of the traps collected weevils during this period.

Beet armyworm populations in corn failed to cause any significant damage in our corn. Again predators and parasites had a major impact on populations. In corn Nabids, pirate bugs and big-eyed bugs (predators) were very abundant. Very few beets reached the last larval growth stage.

Currently the corn earworm is the most common whorl feeding pest. A few fall armyworm larvae have been found in the whorl.

Southwestern corn borer moth flights have been high for this early in the season. Traps collected on June 11 in the Edmonson and Kress areas have been averaging 17 moths per day or 117/week./trap. The highest trap collected 308/week. We expect to see whorl feeding by southwestern corn borer over the next two weeks.

European corn borer populations are very low averaging less than one moth per trap per week. No larvae have been found in fields yet.