Yield reductions from insect pests were 11.08% contributing to the lowest yield of cotton in the 1990's. Losses plus costs exceeded $1.68 billion. The increased abundance of some insect pests, insect resistance to pesticides, weather, and an increase in cotton acreage across the belt all combined to bring about one of the most `insect active' years on record. 1995 saw heavy losses from the tobacco budworm in the midsouth and southeast, from the beet armyworm in the south and southwest, and from Lygus in the west. There were reports of large acreage devastated and abandoned because of insect pests and an inability to manage them.