AgFax Midsouth Cotton - Louisiana

By AgFax Media LLC, AgFax.com

Sebe Brown, Northeast Louisiana Region Extension Entomologist

"Cotton aphids are still popping up. More plant bugs are turning up, too, because cotton is getting older and squaring more. The number of treatments did pick up, although everyone has pulled back into a wait-and-see pattern now ahead of this tropical system (Cindy). They don't want to spray right now and risk the material being washed off.

"No mites to speak of, just aphids and plant bugs, and aphids may be on their way out with this storm.

"Outside of redbanded stink bugs, soybeans are pretty quiet. Guys in south Louisiana are still fighting them to an extent, but in north Louisiana we're just waiting for them to come into beans.

"If anything, insects are below normal right now, but we do have a large population of corn earworms in corn. Once that starts drying down and the next flight takes shape, they'll be looking for somewhere else to lay eggs – mainly in soybeans and cotton. Even our very earliest planted corn has worms in or on the ears. Normally, that corn outruns them, but this hasn't been a normal year."

Richard Griffing, Griffing Consulting, LLC, Monterey, Louisiana

"Our cotton ranges from pinhead square to the second week of bloom. We're spraying a lot of plant bugs, with problems around corn in particular. In general, we're having trouble holding fruit due to the rain and lack of sunshine and now we have plant bugs on top of that.

"We're steadily hammering away at plant bugs, although it looks like more rain is coming from that tropical system (Cindy). Rainfall has actually been variable recently and very, very spotty. In places, it's been powder dry but not far away you can step into fields that are sloppy wet.

"Our problem hasn't been so much the amount of rain but the frequency. About the time we might get in the field again, another half-inch comes along. It really held up herbicide applications and you can tell it.

"Our soybeans range from R2 to R5 and look pretty good but they definitely need more solar radiation. Insects are nearly nonexistent in beans, although I'm picking up redbanded stink bugs around them. When those fields do hit R5, the stink bugs will be in them with a vengeance."

Gary Wolfe, La-Ark Agricultural Consulting, Ida, Louisiana

"We need a rain (as of 6/19) but the last system split – some of it went north and the rest went to our south. Insects are quiet but plant bugs are out there, and surrounding vegetation is holding them. Alfalfa has been loaded with plant bugs. In places I'm counting 5 to 6 per sweep, although I've seen them worse than that in certain years. Clover is full of them, too, plus I can find plant bugs in soybeans. So, this could turn into a wild year for plant bugs.

"Weed control has been pretty good. Scattered escapes are around but we've pretty much cleaned them up."