Brown Stink Bugs

Adult brown stink bugs continue to be observed in many fields. They have been present for about a month but could not do much damage until about the second week of bloom when small thumb sized bolls were present. I observed fields of late April planted cotton in southeastern Alabama (2-3 weeks of bloom) yesterday that had up to 40% boll damage from brown stink bugs. When stink bugs are present prior to bloom, bolls smaller than quarter diameter should be sampled as soon as they are available.