GENERAL SITUATION

Hot and Windy! Cotton ranged from replanted to matchhead square stage. Several acres of area cotton have been damaged by weather since the last newsletter. Severe hail damaged cotton south of Midkiff and northwest of Garden City last Thursday. Blowing sand has damaged many more acres over the past week. Insect activity is light in general.

THRIPS

Thrips numbers ranged from light to moderate in area fields. The only cotton that may still warrant thrips control are the weather damaged fields that do not need any more delay.

SCOUTING PROGRAM

The scouts should have everyone located and scouting all fields. They will be counting thrips on the pre squaring cotton and fleahoppers square set and key predators on the squaring cotton.

SCOUT SAFETY

Please contact your scouts or me if you are spraying the field they are scouting with an insecticide. We do not want anyone to be exposed unnecessarily to pesticides.

BOLL WEEVILS

No weevils were caught in the regular boll weevil traps this week but 8 were caught on a farm east of Garden City in 27 traps. This field is trapped like the eradication program fields with traps surrounding the field and phermone changed weekly with two phermone in the trap at all times.

PINK BOLLWORM

Pinky traps are ranging from 0-.5 moths per trap per night.

JUMBO GRASSHOPPER

A few jumbos have moved into a field north of Garden City. These are the first jumbos we have found.

BASIC IPM CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS

Continuing series on basic IPM concepts and definitions.

IPM Decision-Making
There is a 6 step process to decision-making in IPM
1. Identify the problem or pest
2. Determine the severity of the problem (scouting, traps, past history)
3. Assess the management options (do nothing, cultural, biological chemical control)
4. Select and apply one or more options
5. Measure the success of options employed
6. Record the results

Questions to Ask Before Pest Management Decisions Are Made
1. What pests are present, in what numbers and stages of development?
2. What conditions exist that may increase or decrease pest problems?
3. What natural enemies of the pests, such as parasites, predators, and diseases, are present that may play an important role in control?
4. What amount and type of damage is being caused or may soon be caused by pests?
5. What is the stage of development, condition, and value of the crop?
6. What is the potential for economical injury? How much damage is tolerable? Has the action threshold been reached?
7. What pest management options are available, and how do the advantages and disadvantages of each apply to the situation?
8. If alternatives are not available, is a pesticide treatment justified for the situation? If so, what is the material of choice?
10. If a pesticide is not justified, what approaches, if any, should be taken?

Field scouting and action thresholds can be used to provide much of the information needed to answer these questions. Thorough field scouting provided by an unbiased source who understands the crop and cropping system remains a major tenant of IPM.

WEATHER DATA
Weather data for the past two weeks is included in the table that follows:

HEAT UNITS averaged 21per day the past week. Heat units since 5-1 and 5-15 and 6-1 are compared wit last year and a five year average in the table below.

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Educational programs conducted by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service serve people of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race, color, sex, religion, handicap or national origin. The information given herein is for educational purposes only. References to commercial products or trade names is made with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by the Cooperative Extension Service is implied.

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