Cotton Insect Management in 2025

Getting into the cotton business is an expensive endeavor and staying in it can be even more difficult. From highly specialized equipment needs, like pickers, to fertilizers or a bag of seed, few things are “cheap” if you want to grow cotton. As they old saying goes, you spend the first month of the year trying to keep it alive, then the rest of the year trying to slow it down. That is, if you are fortunate enough to have irrigation capacity or blessed by timely rains. As many farmers across Alabama experienced this year, extended periods of drought at certain times take all that front end cost and dump it. “Raising” a cotton crop is a challenging but rewarding job, our job with Extension is to help make it possible.

Each year, everyone in the industry looks for ways to “economize” cotton production. Agronomists look at reducing seeding rates or cutting back on certain fertilizers. Weed scientists evaluate cover crops as ways to reduce weed pressure with the added benefit of holding soil moisture longer into the season. Plant pathologists evaluate fungicide timings to see how often these applications return money and preserve yield. Precision ag specialists are adopting soil moisture probes to make irrigation more efficient or using NDVI maps to variable rate in-season inputs. This brings one final discipline. Where can we cut costs on insect management?

To answer the question of where we can cut back on insect control, we must first look at where we are. The concept of “precision agriculture” is, on the surface, a new frontier that will take ag into the future. If you ask an artificial intelligence (AI) program what precision agriculture is, you will get a nice definition talking about a “modern” farming approach that uses technology to respond to variability in crops or livestock. These programs will tell you about fancy technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS), Internet of Things (IoT) which are devices that connect tractors or other equipment to the internet, drones and/or data management and analytics programs that help with decision-making. If you think about it, however, we have been responding to variability and field specific conditions in insect management for some time.

The concept of integrated pest management, or IPM, was formally developed in the late 1950’s by a group of researchers from the University of California at Riverside and led by Dr. Vernon Stern. While it can be defined in many ways, at its core IPM is using a combination of all tactics available to reduce pest pressure and maximize the environmental and economic return on insect management. Scouting and monitoring is the backbone of an IPM program. That is, scouting fields across an area and determining what insects are present at what level, so the farmer can make well informed and timely decisions on controls based on economic thresholds. In other words, scouting fields enables the farmer to use field specific data to make “precise” applications where controls are warranted and to avoid applications where insects are not at damaging levels.

As strategies for insect management have changed, so too have the primary pests of cotton. Long gone are the days of 4–5-day spray intervals for boll weevil. In 1986, the year prior to the Boll Weevil Eradication Program, Alabama cotton farmers averaged 16.6 insecticide applications per acre. During the eradication program (1987 through 1995), tobacco budworm, bollworm and beet armyworm stepped into the forefront and Alabama farmers averaged “just” 9.8 applications per acre. This changed with the introduction of genetically modified (GM) cotton varieties expressing the naturally occurring Bacillus thruingiensis (Bt) toxins that now provide excellent control of these and other lepidopteran pests. The 1996 season ushered in a new era of insect management, Alabama farmers averaged less than 1 application per acre, thanks to the successful eradication program and a 77% adoption of Bt cotton.  However, we quickly learned that other pests would fill the void. Stink bugs became the primary target with two or more applications required to avoid economic losses in most years. More recently, tarnished plant bugs have become a much more consistent problem. Resistance has complicated plant bug management, making timeliness much more important for economic control. Still, sporadic pests, such as grasshoppers, spider mites, aphids and many others require monitoring and control at various times throughout the season.

With all these factors in mind, how should we approach insect management in 2025? This past year, I was called to visit a field with an experienced consultant that got a little behind on plant bugs in one field. He made the statement that his new customer stressed that if could save him one spray, then he would be worth whatever he was paying. The week prior, the consultant decided this field was a candidate for “savings.” As we stood in the field and evaluated the level of insects and damage present, he realized that his job is not to “save a spray” but to “maximize a spray.” As I like to say when it comes to cotton insect control, you can save money or you can save cotton, but it is hard to do both. In 2025 with commodity prices low and input prices high, the value of a scout is even greater. Many of the insecticides used today do not provide 100% control. Our goal is not to eliminate insects anyway, it is to keep them below damaging levels. With that in mind, the timeliness of insecticide applications is critical, as 70% of a threshold is far greater than 70% of a 3x threshold. When a scout reports insects at threshold (i.e. damaging levels), intervention should be made as soon as possible.

Tips to Economize Cotton Insect Control in 2025

1.    Use a trained scout or consultant. Farming is a very labor-intensive job. Difficulties finding workers to help on the farm only makes it worse. Having someone who’s job is to monitor fields weekly from emergence to “cutout” to provide detailed reports of insects is critical. This can allow the farmer to make the most informed decision on when to treat or not treat.

2.    Use economic thresholds. Thresholds for nearly every cotton insect have been developed over the years to ensure insecticide applications maximize return on investment. But they only work if they are followed. In other words, spraying under threshold will not bring back money and spraying well above threshold will not return all the money possible.

3.    Make timely applications when needed. When an insect report is received, time is of the essence. Action to stop a growing population should be taken to ensure economic losses are not reached. If an insect population is given a week after reaching damaging levels to feed and continue growing, that makes getting populations back under threshold much more difficult.

4.    Use recommended insecticides at recommended rates. After timeliness, using the “right stuff” at the “right amount” is critical. Each year, we conduct insecticide efficacy trials to monitor the performance of insecticides against key insect pests. We try to make the most economic recommendation in every situation. This does not, however, always mean the cheapest insecticide or the lowest rate. Getting good control is critical to minimizing losses and increasing return on investment.