Several tests were conducted in 1999 to evaluate the efficacy of commercial and experimental insecticides against tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (F.), and bollworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie). Foliar sprays of Tracer 4SC, Denim 0.16EC, and Steward 1.25SC produced >80% mortality of tobacco budworm larvae (L3 stage). In a similar experiment, 1.0 inch of simulated rainfall applied within 1 hr post-treatment significantly reduced the activity of these same insecticides. In all field trials that included a pyrethroid as a standard treatment, numbers of damaged fruiting forms and infestations of larvae were not statistically different from those in the non-treated controls when the tobacco budworm was the predominate Heliothine species. In those same tests, Denim 0.16EC, Steward 1.25 SC and S-1812 4EC at one or more rates generally provided satisfactory tobacco budworm control comparable to that of Tracer 4SC. No insecticide demonstrated a level of efficacy against bollworm significantly greater than that provided by the pyrethroids.