ARS | Publication request: Interrelationships among Stink Bug Management, Cotton Fiber Quality and Boll Rot

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: December 27, 2009
Publication Date: January 4, 2010
Citation: Toews, M., Roberts, P., Medrano, E.G. 2010. Interrelationships among stink bug management, cotton fiber quality and boll rot. Proceedings of the Beltwide Cotton Conferences, January 4-7, 2010, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2010 CDROM.

Technical Abstract: Stink bug feeding and associated boll damage has become an important economic cotton production issue in the southeastern United States. Previous research showed that stink bug feeding directly resulted in increased lint staining, decreased lint yield, decreased gin turnout, and decreased lint value per unit area. Therefore, southeastern entomologists developed a new dynamic insecticide treatment threshold that weighs the potential for setting harvestable bolls during that week of bloom with observed damage in the field. However, estimated fiber losses attributed to stink bugs fluctuate widely across years. While differences in stink bug density are a factor in these losses, the incidence of internal boll rot pathogens transmitted by the insects is likely an overlooked factor. Here, we collected adult stink bugs in 2009 from Georgia corn and cotton fields and caged them on clean bolls growing in the greenhouse to access the incidence of pathogen transmission. Evidence from this study shows that stink bugs transmitted boll rot pathogens to clean bolls more than 50% of the time.