More fields were reported with aphid infestations last week. Due to this later than normal aphid buildup, growers may want to be more proactive in applying treatments. Stress from aphids, where they are occurring in 2011, is overlapping early to mid boll set. We need to set all the fruit possible in the next two weeks.
Both the brown and Southern stink green stink bug species are present at some level in many fields. Cotton planted in April and up to mid May is already into the third to sixth week of bloom. This means that we should be using a low (10%) internal damaged boll threshold for stink bugs. Growers who chose to treat for aphids should consider stink bugs when selecting their chemicals or tank mixtures.
The flight of corn earworms from corn to cotton usually occurs the week of July 20 in central Alabama. This egg lay may occur up to 7 days earlier in south Alabama and 7 days later in the northern counties. This budworm flight will only be meaningful to those who have planted conventional cotton varieties. Older larvae observed last week were likely from budworm moths that occurred 1 to 2 weeks ago.
