By Clint Thompson
The cotton jassid was one of the main stories that defined Georgia’s 2025 cotton season. It’s been under the spotlight during University of Georgia winter meetings and was the main highlight at the Georgia Cotton Commission (GCC) annual meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 28.
Phillip Roberts, University of Georgia Extension cotton entomologist, was a featured speaker at the GCC meeting and highlighted the jassid’s potential impact on this year’s crop.
“Today we’re here at the Cotton Commission’s annual meeting, six months and 19 days since we saw the first jassid in the state of Georgia. We know a lot more. We know how to control the insect. We know the insect is an economic pest. It requires control,” Roberts said. “There’s still a lot we don’t know. We don’t know the impact of the winter; what that’s going to be on this bug.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how this next year plays out. The No. 1 question I get at our grower meetings is when to expect the insect? Again, that’s a, ‘I don’t know.’ We do know just on observations and trials, the earlier it infests cotton, the greater our potential yield loss. It is an insect we’ll be scouting for very early in the season.”
Insect’s Impact
The cotton jassid feeds on the lower surface of the leaves. It leads to a yellowing, reddening and browning of the leaves. Hopperburn leads to complete desiccation of the plants. It is a pest of cotton, okra, eggplant and sunflowers.
Timing remains critical, however. If the jassid is impacted by the cold temperatures this winter and not observed in the spring, then growers won’t have to worry about it until they start worrying about whiteflies.
“I do feel pretty confident that the winter has impacted them. Has it eliminated them? Probably not,” Roberts said. “I full expect us to have this insect in cotton next year. Again, it’s all about when. One of the things as we reflect back to 2025, we sprayed about 60% of the cotton in the state of Georgia for this insect. That’s unprecedented in year one. What we learned and our growers learned, they were able to manage the insect. We added some expense, but at the end of the day, we handled it. But that is when we saw them in mid-bloom.
“We’re going to communicate information through our county agents because this is going to continue to be an evolving situation.”