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News, events, and happenings in Colquitt County agriculture.

Thrips infest nearly all cotton acres in Georgia every year.  This is the only insect pest that a preventive insecticide treatment is recommended.  Agronomic and management practices can influence the risk and severity of infestations.  Let’s discuss a few tips on managing thrips in cotton…

  • Use a preventive insecticide at planting. Thrips infest near 100 percent of the cotton planted in Georiga.  We consistently observe positive yield responses in UGA research when an at plant insecticide is used.  It is not feasible to control thrips with foliar sprays alone.
  • Thrip populations are generally higher on early planted cotton compared with later planted cotton.  The Thrips Infestation Predictor for Cotton is a web-based tool with predicts the risk from thrips by location and planting date.  Below are results from this model for a April 15th planting date in Moultrie, GA. 
  • Thrip pressure is lower in reduced tillage production systems compared to conventional tillage.  In general, the more cover or residue on the soil surface the greater the reduction in thrips.
  • Cotton seedlings are more sensitive to yield loss from thrips feeding during the early stages of development.  Excessive thrip feeding and plant injury on 1-2 leaf cotton have a greater yield penalty than cotton infested at the 3-4 leaf stage.  Once cotton reaches the 4 leaf stage and is growing rapidly, thrips are rarely an economic pest. 
  • Scout for thrips if cotton is growing slowly due to herbicide injury, cool temperatures, or other stresses. Thrips feed in the terminal bud on unfurled leaves so more feeding occurs on each unfurled leaf if the plant is growing slowly.  The threshold for thrips is 2-3 thrips per plant with immatures are present.  The presence of immature thrips suggests at plant insecticides are not providing control. 

Contact your local county Extension agent for at plant and post emerge insecticide recommendations for managing thrips in cotton. 

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