St. Paul, MN (July, 2019)—Tarnished plant bug is one of the most harmful pests of cotton in the mid-Atlantic states of Virginia and North Carolina. To learn more about this threat, Sally Taylor and Seth Dorman, of Virginia Tech Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center (AREC), scouted and studied cotton fields from 2016 to 2018. They present their findings in the webcast “Tarnished Plant Bug Management Strategies for Mid-Atlantic Cotton.”
Taylor and Dorman encourage growers to avoid planting cotton beside other hosts of tarnished plant bug, including wheat and corn, and emphasize weed management to eliminate the proximity of other hosts. Taylor and Dorman also report that cotton planted later in the year and certain varieties of cotton, such as mid- to full-maturing and smooth-leaf varieties, require more intensive management.
Taylor and Dorman conclude that scouting and using thresholds are the most effective strategies for managing tarnished plant bug. They also recommend strategies for insecticide use and resistance management.
Both webcasts are available through the “Focus on Cotton” resource on the Plant Management Network. This resource contains more than 75 webcasts, along with presentations from six conferences, on a broad range of aspects of cotton crop management: agronomic practices, diseases, harvest and ginning, insects, irrigation, nematodes, precision agriculture, soil health and crop fertility, and weeds. These webcasts are available to readers open access (without a subscription).
The “Focus on Cotton” homepage also provides access to “Cotton Cultivated,” a new resource from Cotton Incorporated that helps users quickly find the most current cotton production information available. These and other resources are freely available courtesy of Cotton Incorporated at www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/foco.
