The combined effects of thrips insecticide/nematicide treatments and sand and wind damage (sand burn) on thrips populations, plant stand, maturity and yield were evaluated on D&PL 50 cotton at the Virginia Tech, Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Suffolk, VA. Early-planted, sand-burned cotton was compared with late-planted, non-sand-burned cotton. In early-planted cotton, the naturally occurring extreme wind and blowing sand conditions appeared to remove thrips populations from seedlings regardless of insecticide/nematicide treatment. Late-planted cotton appeared to escape most early season thrips damage. Sand burn reduced seedling stand across all treatments from about 2.5 to 1.5 plants per foot of row, with the least loss recorded in Temik 15G treated plots. During the period from July 22 through August 7, flowering was delayed by about 1 week in late-planted, non-sand-burned cotton compared with early-planted, sand-burned cotton. Plant mapping indicated that in general, regardless of treatment, early-planted, sand-burned cotton was taller and had more reproductive structures compared with late-planted, non-sand-burned cotton. Of the treatments mapped, in general, Temik 15G treated plants were tallest and had the most reprductive structures, and Gaucho 480 seed treated and Di-Syston 15G treated plants were taller and had more reproductive structures compared with the untreated control. Yield in sand-burned and late-planted cotton averaged 506 and 466 lb lint/acre, respectively, and was not significantly different (P=0.9505). However, the average yield was almost 1600 lb lint/acre in an adjacent experiment in the same field with early planted D&PL 50, that did not sustain sand damage. Sand burn reduce cotton seedling stand, slowed maturity and caused yield reductions of almost 1000 lb lint/acre. Replanting did not recover those losses.