GENERAL SITUATION: GENERAL SITUATION: The week was slightly cooler, but still no moisture of any consequence. Some drizzle and then some fog, but no rainfall that could count toward a normal yielding crop. Another two to three weeks and many dryland fields of grain sorghum and cotton will essentially be history.

We would like to remind everyone about the USDA Research Center AgScience Day on Thursday, April 18th at their north farm on FM 88 north of Weslaco. The day will start at 9:00 am and end about 3:00 pm. Hope you can make it.

There are some scheduled meetings to discuss the voluntary boll weevil suppression activities that many growers have been going through since last year. So far, meetings are scheduled at: Ross Gin in Mercedes on April 16 at 8:00 am, April 23 at the Rangerville Co-Op at 8:00 am, April 23rd at the Progreso Co-Op at 12:00 pm. Meetings are being planned for the La Feria Co-Op and the Harlingen area on April 24 and the Southmost area on April 25. The meeting times and exact locations for April 24 and 25 will be determined shortly. If you farm cotton in one of these areas, you may want to come by and join in on the discussion of how your area farmers will conduct their weevil suppression efforts this year. We look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings.

Boll weevils were caught in traps in decreasing numbers this week. A report of one trap catching over 50 weevils near Delta Lake in Hidalgo county was the only high count noted. Counts in Extension traps around the Valley showed a high number of 8 in one trap east of Santa Rosa. Most of the traps in the Extension line showed 0 or near 0 this week.

Other insects for cotton remained light with the exception of thrips in the vicinity of onions. Thrips counts ranged from 0 to over 40 per plant on a few cotton plants in scattered locations, particularly in Hidalgo county. Onion fields which have recently been harvested or bladed in preparation for harvest seemed to be the source of most of the thrips observed. Even cotton fields as far away as 2 miles from onion fields were targets of migrating thrips. Strong winds in the Valley blew from south to north and then north to south ( sometimes both directions in a single day) which probably enhanced the thrips movement from field to field. Reports of thrips being difficult to kill in onions transferred to some cotton fields this week as well.

One field of cotton in Willacy county was reported to have an infestation of bollworms this week. The count in the field was 4 per 100 plants. None of the worms observed were over 1/4 inch long. Damaged terminals were less than 4 per 100 plants. Worms at this time of the season are not uncommon, but generally do