By Clint Thompson
Georgia cotton producers must manage their insect populations efficiently. That means trusting your scouting and thresholds, especially for stink bugs, says Phillip Roberts, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension cotton entomologist.
He spoke about insect management during the Georgia Cotton Commission’s mid-year meeting on July 23.
“In July and August in the state of Georgia, we think of stink bugs first and foremost. Stink bugs are the pest that we most commonly treat each and every year. Most of our growers understand how to do a good job in managing stink bugs,” Roberts said. “Just scout and make good decisions.”
Tarnished Plant Bugs
Roberts also wants growers to be mindful of tarnished plant bugs. Bifenthrin is no longer providing acceptable control of tarnished plant bugs. Internal boll damage increased following initial bifenthrin sprays.
“In recent years we’ve seen an increase in problems with tarnished plant bugs. That’s new to growers in Georgia. When we’re making these stink bug sprays, we need to make sure that we know if tarnished plant bugs are also present. A lot of time we use pyrethroids to control stink bugs, and they’re not going to provide acceptable control for plant bugs,” Roberts said. “We’ll need to tweak our insecticide selection to pick up plant bugs if they’re present.”
Treatment Options
Management strategies focus on scouting, post-bloom with a drop cloth. Roberts stressed what treatment options are available.
“When we deal with stink bugs, we’re primarily using pyrethroids. We know with brown stink bugs that we don’t get quite as good of control of them with a pyrethroid. Pyrethroids do excellent on the green ones. If we have browns, we’ll have to look at adding an organophosphate to that pyrethroid,” Roberts said.
“If tarnished plant bugs are in the mix, we treat them just like we treat brown stink bugs. The important thing to know is to know if you have brown stink bugs present, know if you have tarnished stink bugs present, and again it’s just a small adjustment in insecticide selection. We’ve got to get it right the first time.”