Cotton fleahoppers are ranging from 0 to 18 per 100 terminals, with square sets ranging from 63% to 100%. Square set is good in most cases; in fact, most square loss up to this point can be attributed to environmental conditions (hot, dry winds) rather than to insects.

Cotton boll weevils are few and far between at this time. In fact, we will be pulling our boll-weevil pheromone traps next week; we are not catching anything but flies and dust! We are now using field inspection of squares to determine weevil activity (field inspection consists of looking at 100 squares from all parts of a field, checking for feeding and egg-laying punctures). We have not seen damage yet.

Other insects we are finding which have some producers and scouts asking questions are the following:

Notoxus beetles are small beetles easily recognized by the hornlike projection of thethorax extending over the head.

On conventional cotton, if the stalk has not developed bark, directed spray that gets on the stalk will kill the plant. When bark is formed on conventional cotton later in the season, the Roundup may not penetrate and get into the cotton plant to kill it.

You also have options other than Roundup. MSMA or DSMA may be considered. Staple herbicide, applied over the top, is another choice. These products differ in weed spectrum controlled and in cost. Remember, the less you disturb the soil the less likelihood you have of bringing on another flush of weeds.

HEAT UNITS
Very good growing conditions for most all crops have occurred the past two weeks. The heat units (HU) for these past two weeks has been steadily above 16 HU (DD60's) up to 23 units on the 30th of June. To-date we have accumulated 78.4 HU since May 15th. It takes an average of 900 accumulated HU before first bloom appears. With simple calculations of an average of 20 HU per day it will be another week before we see much in the way of first bloom. Therefore, we can anticipate first bloom at around July 6th -10th , peak bloom around July 20, and last effective bloom date of the August 15th - 20th.

Heat units accumulated from two planting dates up to July 1:

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