General Situation:
Cotton planting proceeds at a rapid pace. In the Terry-Yoakum Counties we are likely approaching 70 percent of the acreage planted. There are numerous fields in the area which have emerged with cotyledon and up to one true leaf in the fields. There have been a few fields replanted due to hail or sand blasting from last Sunday night's wind.

Thrips:
We have evaluated fields in the Terry-Yoakum Pest Management Scouting Program which were planted with up to four pounds of Temik and found as many as 3 thrips per plant average (with less than 50% of the plants have their first true leaf). This points out the importance of scouting those fields regularly whether they had an at plant insecticide treatment or not.

Thrips are slender, straw colored insects about 1/15 inch long, with piercing and sucking mouthparts. Adults are winged and capable of drifting long distances in the wind. Thrips attack leaves, leaf buds and very small squares and may cause a silvering of the lower leaf surface, deformed or blackened leaves, terminal loss and square loss.

The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating

Foliar insecticide treatments for thrips include compounds containing acephate, dimethoate. and the products Guthion, Sevin, Bidrin and Methyl Parathiod. While each of these products provides a measure of control for the short term, we will likely be looking at making multiple treatments on many fields.

For more specifics about insect identification, scouting methods and thresholds see the Texas Agricultural Extension Service (TAEX) publication "Managing Cotton Insects in the High Plains, Rolling Plains and Trans Pecos Area of Texas 2001", TAEX publication number E-6. This cotton guide is available here at the office or on the internet at: http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/ag_and_field.html.

Worm Pests:
There have been numerous rumors about how bad the worm problems are down south. I contacted our IPM Agents in Sweetwater and Garden City as well as the Extension Entomologist in San Angelo. They were seeing true armyworms in pasture and in grass crops. Chris Sansone (TAEX Extension Entomologist) indicated that less than 20 percent of their wheat was infested and only about 5% was treated. They had mesquite cutworms in the mesquites, fall, yellow stripe and beet armyworms in gardens, but no reports of beet armyworms in field crops.

There have been reports of several fields in Gaines County being treated for beet armyworm infestations. These infestations have been as high as 20,000 worms per acre. These are one to two day old worms in one to two leaf cotton. These infestations remind us that the real possibility exists to have continued pressure from this pest into the season. We have also had a few BAW in scouting program fields, although not at treatment levels.

Terry County Co-Op Gin, Wednesday, June 6th
8:30 A.M.
Fiber Tex Co-Op Gin, Thursday, June 7th,
10:00 A.M.

We will discuss current pests, scouting techniques and control options.

MAILING LIST UPDATE:
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Scout School:
The High Plains Scout Training Conference will be held Friday June 1st at the Ollie Liner Center in Plainview. Five CEU's from T.D.A. have been requested for those with a pesticide applicators license. Contact the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, Terry County for details.