Jack S. Bacheler1, Phillip Roberts2, Jeremy K. Greene3, John W. Van Duyn1, Ames Herbert4, Michael D. Toews2, John R. Ruberson2, Eric L. Blinka1, Dan W. Mott1, Dan Robinson3, Tommy Walker3, Charles Davis3, Ronald Smith5, David Morrison1, and Thomas Pegram1. (1) North Carolina State University, Box 7613, Raleigh, NC 27695, (2) University of Georgia, PO Box 1209, Tifton, GA 31793, (3) Clemson University, Edisto Research & Education Center, 64 Research Road, Blackville, SC 29817, (4) Virginia Tech, Tidewater AREC, 6321 Hollant Rd., Suffolk, VA 23437, (5) Auburn University, 206 Extension Hall, Auburn, AL 36849
In 2005-2007, Cotton Incorporated supported a southeastern research initiative entitled “Identifying Practical Solutions for Managing the Sucking-Bug Complex in Cotton: Research in the SE Region” through the State Support Committees of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The main focus of this research was to develop and refine scouting procedures and thresholds in managing this increasingly damaging bug complex in southeastern cotton. Studies included 1) determining wild and cultivated host utilization and bug movement through the agricultural landscape, 2) evaluating the utility of employing an external boll damage assessment scouting procedure, 3) determining the relative economic impact of plant bugs vs. stink bugs in the Southeast, 4) determining the major stink bug species impacting cotton by sub region, 5) establishing the relationship between cotton phenology and susceptibility to bug damage to boll damage and yield loss, 6) the possible utility of a dynamic, phenology-based, internal boll damage vs. static thresholds of 10, 20, and 30% under differing cotton crop conditions and bug pressure, 7) determining the relationship between stink bug damage to bolls and impact on yield and quality, and other studies.
