Cotton growers should watch out
01/12/2009
Cotton growers will be better able to keep an eye out for two common pests because of a recent survey carried out Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists at College Station, Texas.
Entomologist Jesus Esquivel, at the ARS Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center in College Station, collected insects from fields and roadsides bordering cotton crops to identify plants that host tarnished plant bugs and cotton fleahoppers. Both of these insects cause major damage when they jump from weeds to developing cotton each spring.
The tarnished plant bug infested almost 2 million hectares of US cotton in 2008, making it the single most damaging insect for that country’s cotton crop. The fleahopper ranked fifth, infesting almost 1 million hectares.
Adult tarnished plant bugs spend winters in ground litter and emerge in spring to feed on wild plants. They infest developing cotton buds, damage bolls and are believed to transmit cotton diseases. Cotton fleahoppers emerge from eggs in the spring and feed on weeds before moving to cotton in May and early June. Cotton fleahoppers have reportedly infested cotton located 30 kilometres from their weed hosts.
ARS believes that the survey findings will add to growers’ awareness about conditions that contribute to infestations and crop losses.
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