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Sticky Cotton Prevention – Late Season Insect and Defoliation Management

 

Preventing sticky cotton is crucial in producing quality cotton. Late-season populations of cotton aphid and Silverleaf whitefly can produce significant amounts of honeydew when populations build. These pests are of most concern from mid-boll filling through harvest, when insect populations build and threaten exposed lint. Pest management guidelines for cotton aphid and silverleaf whitefly focus on strategies to use once threshold pest populations are reached, with the approach varying with the composition of the developing population (nymphs, adults), crop growth stage, and with the presence of exposed lint. Current pest management guidelines for whitefly and aphid can be interpreted as meaning defoliation is the final event of the season. This is based on the assumption…

 

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Studies associated with Lygus and cotton aphid management

 

Background and update on results of previous studies.
Lygus bugs play a pivotal role in cotton pest management. They cause direct damage to bolls, and their control with broad spectrum pesticides disrupts natural enemies and induces outbreaks of secondary pests. Cotton pests and their natural enemies move within cotton fields and migrate between the field and adjacent areas. Quantitative knowledge of the movement of Lygus bugs is lacking in the field. Understanding of the dispersal and host finding behavior of these pests and their natural enemies is needed for IPM. This will also…

 

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Pest and natural enemy mark-recapture studies of dipsersal in beans and between alfafla and beans

 

1. Abstract.
This study will measure movement and migratory behavior of western tarnished plant bug (its natural enemies) in beans and bwrween beans and alfalfa. Mark recapture will expand upon techniques developed last year in cotton and alfalfa. The absolute abundance, immigration, and emigration from the field will be measured. Cage studies with the parasitoid Peristenus stygicus will measure the impact on Lygus compared to regulation by existing natural enemies. lf pesticides are needed I will coordinate with Brian to…

 

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