Cotton continues on course with weather dominating management decisions. Lack of significant rainfall over much of the dryland crop puts a damper on any insect control decisions. If moisture is short, I wouldn't waste my money on controlling insects to save squares, only to lose them later to drought-induced stress. Wait for a rain before committing any money to insect management. This advice may even be relevant for furrow irrigated fields. Under the current evapotranspiration load, this form of irrigation cannot even approach keeping up with plant water demands. The number of Nodes Above White Flower (NAWF) tell the story. Many row-watered fields are approaching cutout (NAWF=4) while pivot-irrigated fields for the most part are 3-5 nodes above cutout, unless they are the earlier surviving fields with a heavy fruit load.

In the High Plains area, cutout occurs more consistently at NAWF=4. Most areas of the cotton belt use NAWF=5. Unfortunately, this is a very unstable end point for us. Once cutout occurs, BOLLMAN's end-of-season management rules can kick in. Producers and consultants need only track the number of heat units (HU) accumulated from that point forward. At 350 HU's past cutout, insecticide treatments for boll weevils can stop. This assumes of course that there is not a damaging infestation present in the field at the time of this decision. Otherwise you will have to continue to treat to remove the current economically damaging infestation.

Terminating treatments for fruit-feeding caterpillar damage from beet armyworms and bollworms will be possible at 450 HU's past cutout. This again assumes that there is not an economically damaging infestation present at the time of this decision. If an infestation of 15,000 larvae per acre or higher caterpillar level develops following this decision, I would still treat until 600 HU's.

Fields that have accumulated 850-950 HU's past cutout are now candidates for a harvest aid treatment. If physiological cutout occurs after the local weather conditions do not allow sufficient time to accumulate this number of HU's, then producers will have to accumulate these necessary HU's from a seasonal cutout date. We have those dates for several locations across the west Texas area. For very late-planted fields, 650-750 HU's will be enough to make some lint but it won't have very good fiber quality characteristics.

Plant bug infestation levels increasing slowly. There appears to be a general increase in western tarnished plant bug numbers this week. Most infestations remain below damaging levels. There are those fields next to prime plant bug hosts such as alfalfa, peanuts and pastures that have higher numbers, sometimes exceeding economic thresholds. Remember that unlike fleahoppers, the danger from plant bug damage does not diminish once cotton begins to bloom. Larger squares, blooms and small bolls are all vulnerable to attack and damage.

First summer generation boll weevil infestations very light. The number of fields requiring treatment by producers for this generation across the area can be counted on the fingers of my hands. Most fields outside of the active eradication zones have no weevils or non-detectable levels. Trap catches, both the GRID and Foundation's remain at record lows. The only zone that had a slight increase in trap catches based on Foundation traps, was the Southern High Plains Zone, with an increase from 0.102 weevils per trap-week last time to 0.151 weevils per trap-week this week. I would expect a more substantial increase to occur beginning in August. The low incidence of secondary pest problems has allowed the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation to continue to conduct an aggressive spray program this year. This will pay big dividends.

Generally low beet armyworm infestations are good news. Beet armyworm egg laying continues at a reduced level this week with the vast majority of fields free of this pest. The earlier feared threat of beet armyworm problems this year has failed to develop. Trap catches are generally down in most areas this week. What is interesting to me is that while trap catches are declining in the northern counties, last year at this time they were increasing in a prelude to the heavy infestations that later developed. Another affirmation that we are not looking at a beet armyworm outbreak this season like last year. Whew!!

July bollworm egg lay continues. Most fields with any bollworm activity to speak of have experience a "nickel and dime" infestation pattern where eggs dribble in over time with low caterpillar survival. These infestations rarely reach 4,000 per acre in any given week. With the economics facing cotton growers this year I would be hard pressed to address these infestations. A very few fields have infestations exceeding my threshold of 10,000 per acre and will need treatment. I usually will not make this decision on infestations in the 8,000-12,000 range until caterpillars are in the ¼ to 3/8th-inch size range. This allows for maximum mortality to be expressed.

What to use if a field needs treatment? A pyrethroid is the cheapest but carries the caveat of potentially increasing aphids and now whitefly infestation levels. Tracer or Steward (if lady beetles are not present) would not upset this apple cart but would be expensive treatments compared to a pyrethroid. We don't know what will flare whitefly infestations. Obviously the reduction in beneficial insects would impact both aphids and whiteflies. But pyrethroids may not have an impact on whitefly reproduction like they do for aphids.

Bayer's Leverage, which is a mixture of Baythroid and Provado, may work in this situation but we have had mixed results from this treatment. Provado has never been a consistent aphid-control material in our area. It has worked much better in other areas. My experience through many tests would indicate that the mixture of a pyrethroid with an aphicide will initially reduce aphid numbers but the aphid-flaring effects of the pyrethroid will eventually "kick in".

Banded-winged whiteflies remain a concern. Banded-winged whiteflies (BWW) remain a visible concern in some areas. Predators appear to be doing an excellent job of keeping most infestation levels down to reasonable levels. What is a damaging level? No one knows for sure. Thus far I have not seen an infestation I would treat. This is based on numbers per leaf and the amount of honeydew present on leaves. I have yet to see honeydew levels equal to levels produced by an aphid infestation I would treat. I'm guessing we don't need to be concerned until numbers at least reach 100 per leaf.

The only concern I have is whether we will be able to get adequate control with existing recommended insecticides if treatments become warranted. The Cadillac treatment for silverleaf whiteflies is a combination of Capture (5.2 oz per acre) of Danitol (4.2 oz per acre) plus Orthene or Address at 8-10.66 oz per acre depending upon formulation. Apparently, Phaser or Thiodan would work for adults only.

Some fields are showing mite colonies as high as the eighth leaf. We knew this would happen if the weather stayed hot and dry. At worst, mite colonies will continue to expand until all of the leaves are killed. They can promote stalk rot and lodging. The economic thresholds for mites are a bit complicated, so readers are referred to "Managing Insect and Mite Pests of Texas Corn" for a complete explanation of mite biology and thresholds. Also, take a minute to determine whether these are Banks grass mites or twospotted spider mites. These photographs will help. Mite species identification is important because the insecticide options are different for the two mite species.

I mentioned mites first because there is another problem that may be occurring in non-Bt corn, and the control options are interrelated. Second generation southwestern and European corn borer adults (SWCB and ECB, respectively) are flying now, with flights peaking this week. Greg Cronholm, Extension IPM Agent for Hale and Swisher counties, and I collected more than 100 ECB females in less than two hours Tuesday night in one field. We passed up the chance to collect several thousand SWCB. The moths are here and they are laying eggs.

Corn borer control can affect mite populations by killing beneficial insects and predatory mites that feed on pest mite species. If corn borers must be controlled with insecticides, look for mites in the field first. If mites are present, consider tank mixing a miticide with the corn borer treatment. Fortunately, Bt corn will not require insecticides for borer control, and that only leaves mites to worry about. PP

I just got a call from an individual with the seed industry who said that after one or two Lorsban applications, his greenbugs were not dead. Of course this could be caused by many factors such as weather, application issues, etc., or it could be resistance. Laboratory tests will be required to be sure. I will keep you posted.

Beneficial insects are managing to contain most pests, even greenbugs in grain sorghum. Seed fields are a different matter and will need to be watched closely. The extremely hot weather is actually helping because insect development slows when it is very hot. PP

Hot, dry weather continues to keep the High Plains region in its grip. Only a few sparse, isolated thunderstorms have produced greatly needed rainfall. These storms continue to pop up in the evening hours, particularly on the New Mexico border, and produce some of our scarce rainfall. Some exceptional rainfall occurred in Bailey and Floyd counties last week. Reports of up to 3 to 4 inches falling in some places in a very short time period have been noted, however, some hail was encountered with these storms.

Most of the High Plains continues to feel the heat and lack of moisture. Producers are applying irrigation water to fields that have good yield potential, but the costs of pumping this needed water are very substantial, particularly when looking at the current cotton prices. High temperatures have consistently been 10-15 degrees above normal over the last couple of weeks, with several days over 100 degrees and with record or near record temperatures (see July temperature slide). Even nighttime lows are running 5-10 degrees above the long-term average. Evapotranspiration (ET) values continue to out-strip irrigation capacity in many fields. Reference ET has been averaging about 0.3 to near 0.4 inches per day for the last several days, with higher values in the southern portions of the High Plains.

Heat unit accumulation has averaged about 24, 27 and 27 per day at Halfway, Lubbock, and Lamesa, respectively. The seasonal accumulated totals from May 1 are 1178, 1358, and 1472 for those locations which is 12, 20, and 22 percent above the long-term average for Halfway, Lubbock, and Lamesa, respectively. The region desperately needs a good, general rainfall and cooler temperatures to help reduce irrigated crop expenses. For much of the dryland crop that reached a stand, the final day of reckoning is rapidly approaching, as even some of the better dryland fields are "blooming out the top" and thus reaching cutout. Irrigated fields, which have been adequately watered, are still looking very good and fruit retention for these fields generally remains good to excellent. RB

At a joint press conference yesterday, Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University faculty members announced the confirmation of Africanized bees in Lubbock. Positive laboratory identifications of Africanization were made from one sample that was taken from a bee attack in central Lubbock. But there have been other aggressive bee incidents on the Southern High Plains this year. The latest was an attack very near Whiteface that lasted for more than two hours. Dr. Marilyn Houck at Texas Tech has determined that the bees involved in the Whiteface attack were Africanized. We are still waiting for the Whiteface results from the Honey Bee Lab at College Station. There is no need to panic over this, but we have established a website that provides a lot of practical information on dealing with Africanized bees if problems develop [http://lubbock.tamu.edu/ahb]. Information is the best weapon. PP