Comparing External and Internal Symptoms of Feeding Injury Caused by Sucking Bugs to Harvest Potential, with Emphasis on Creontiades signatus

Signs of external feeding and internal feeding by sucking bugs and boll rot on green bolls were compared with harvest potential measurements inspecting mature bolls. Data were taken in grower fields in the Lower Gulf Coast of Texas, and a controlled experiment in Corpus Christi focusing on the green plant bug Creontiades signatus. Internal feeding was much better associated with harvest potential then external feeding. Boll rot was associated with Creontiades signatus feeding in the controlled experiment and occurred in grower fields in up to 20% of mature bolls, but was only marginally associated with sucking bug feeding suggesting multiple factors associated with boll rot.