
Project Underway to Battle Cotton Pest in
DeltaBy Tara
Weaver-Missick July 21, 1999Concern about another major cotton pest
that cost growers $75 million last year has led to an intensive
Agricultural Research Service study over
a 36-square-mile area in the Mississippi Delta region. Scientists have begun a three- to four-year project to find ways to combat
the tarnished plant bug. The study consists of four 9-square-mile areas in the
Delta region, with a possibility of future expansion. ARS research entomologist Gordon L.Snodgrass, with ARS
Southern Insect
Management Research Unit (SIMRU) in Stoneville, Miss., discovered in 1993
that tarnished plant bugs (Lygus lineolaris) had become resistant to
pyrethroids, a class of insecticides commonly used to control them. Tarnished plant bugs are a particular problem, because there are more than
100 different weed species on which they can feed and reproduce. In the winter,
they lay dormant in weeds surrounding cotton fields. Then, from February or
mid-to-late March, they emerge and begin laying eggs in the weeds. In late
spring, they move into cotton crops when the weeds mature. ARS scientist are investigating several different approaches to controlling
plant bug populations, including controlling weeds and using biological
controls and developing a chemical lure called a pheromone. In field tests last summer, ARS scientists discovered that the males may
produce a perfume-like pheromone that attracts both sexes--probably to signal
food sources--but they are repeating the test this summer to make sure. Its the only major pest in cotton for which scientists dont have
a sex pheromone, according to Snodgrass. Once they develop a pheromone,
theyll be much closer to banishing the pest from cotton fields. A longer article on this research appears in the July issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
The story is also on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul99/bugs0799.htm Scientific contact: Gordon L. Snodgrass, ARS Southern Insect
Management Research Unit, Stoneville, Miss. phone (601) 686-5231, fax (601)
686-5421, [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |