GENERAL SITUATION: Continued hot, dry and windy. No rain since early February has all of the area crops needing moisture. Some irrigation of crops has commenced and will likely increase if significant rain does not fall quickly. Dryland farms were still holding their own, but just barely. Most cotton appeared to be "ok" this week. Without rain, that could change rapidly. Grain and corn crops need moisture more so than cotton. Increasing grain leaf twisting was observed this week indicating a continual loss of yield potential in those field situations. Insect activity was light this week.

Pheromone traps caught significantly less weevils this week than in the last several weeks. Many traps had zero counts compared to over 10 per day over last week's counts. We changed the scale of the attached graphs from 10 to five so that the graphs should be easier to read. Increasing numbers of cotton fields with squaring cotton and the very windy days over the last 10 days probably accounted for most of the drop in trapped weevils. Some early planted cotton fields had as many as 3 squares per plant. Most cotton was in the 4 to 6 true leaf stage and will likely have visible squares next week. The fewer weevils caught in traps does not mean that weevils are not around the area, only that they cannot fly as well in the high winds as they can when the wind speed is only 10 to 15 miles per hour versus 30 to 50 miles per hour. Keep monitoring traps and fields, even if there is not a history of early boll weevil infestations. Every year is different and the weevils may show up some place they normally do not. Be cautious.

Cabbage loopers were noted in many fields around the LRGV this week. Parts of a few fields in the Willacy county area had leaf damage on every plant. Otherwise, loopers were not reported as heavy in most area field. Larval counts were scattered with numbers ranging from 0 in many fields to 20 or more per 100 plants. Larvae sizes ranged from 1/4 to 3/4 inches in length. Normally, loopers at this time of the season do not cause any economic damage. But, like every other potential cotton pest, loopers should be monitored to make certain that they do not start causing terminal losses or major leaf damage that could inhibit normal plant maturation.

Aphids and cotton fleahoppers were in very light numbers in fields scouted this week. No reports of heavy aphids and only light infestations of fleahoppers were received.

Beet armyworms were again reported, but only in scattered locations. Only a few "hits" were reported and larval counts from those hits were low–only 2 to 3 larvae per hit reported when they were found. Keep scouting.

Some fields were showing heads and a few were actually showing a few blooms this week. Insect activity was all but non-existent as is usually the case with the early sorghum plantings. Sorghum planted after March 10 can often be the sorghum with economic levels of midge which usually appear in fields about the end of May.