ABSTRACT
There were 14,855,000 acres of U.S. Cotton (Upland and Pima) planted in 1999, 13,381,000acres were harvested with an average of 596pounds of lint per acre (USDA - January, 2000 report).
Arthropod pests of cotton reduced yield by 7.66% in 1999. Cotton fleahopper, exhibiting extremely heavy damage to cotton in Texas, became the top pest of 1999 with 2.36% loss to the US cotton crop. Boll weevil is still a pest on 57% of our US acreage and continues to be the second most damaging pest at 2.20% loss. The bollworm/budworm complex reduced yields by 1.05%. The bollworm was the predominant species to attack cotton in 1999. Bollworms were estimated to make up 71% of the population. Lygus (0.93%), Stink Bugs (0.37%), Thrips (0.27%), and aphids(0.22%) rounded out the top seven cotton insect pests for the year. Beltwide, direct insect management costs amounted to $50.59 per acre and losses were $42.75. Cost plus loss is estimated at $1.269 billion. (see M. R. Williams, this proceedings).
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