A Novel Pesticide Use Strategy to Manage Phytophagous Stink Bugs in Southeastern Cotton

Phytophagous stinkbugs such as the green stink bug, southern green stink bug, and brown stink bug are economic pests of cotton production.  In addition to transmitting boll rot pathogens, these pests cause boll abscission, fiber quality losses, and reduced yield.  Growers currently manage stink bug infestations using whole field applications of organophosphate insecticides.  The application of these broad spectrum materials greatly reduces predator and parasitoid populations in addition to increasing the risk of a secondary pest outbreak.  We compared the efficacy of whole field insecticide applications to an alternative approach, spraying every other pass by ground rig.  If successful, this approach could reduce the risk of secondary pest outbreaks, require less insecticide, and save time.  Stink bug density and internal boll damage were monitored weekly at a density of 50 sweeps and 10 bolls per acre in commercial cotton fields.  When mean damage exceeded the Extension recommended threshold, fields were treated using one of the two application methods.  Data analyses suggest that both methods reduced internal damage below the treatment threshold.  Unfortunately, stink bug pressure was generally light during 2011 and additional replication under heavier insect pressure is required to fully evaluate the hypothesis.