Cotton has become a dominant crop in southeastern Virginia since reestablishment in the mid-1980's. Acreage is averaging about 100,000 per year, with 110,000 acres planted in 1999. The bollworm/budworm complex (Helicoverpa zea/H. virescens) is a primary insect pest problem with larvae attacking squares and bolls causing significant yield losses if left uncontrolled. In response, Virginia Cooperative Extension entomologists imported bollworm management recommendations from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service and began field research to validate and refine those recommendations for the Virginia crop/pest environment. Several bollworm control tactics consisting of different pyrethroid insecticides, applied at different rates, and using different spray application schedules, were compared over several years for bollworm efficacy, boll damage and cotton lint yields. Overall, results indicated that two control tactics provided the highest and most consistent yield increases over untreated controls. Each of these began with a broadcast spray application of pyrethroid at a standard rate (0.018 to 0.028 lb ai/acre) at the bollworm egg threshold. With tactic one, a second pyrethroid spray was applied at a high rate (0.03 to 0.04 lb ai/acre) 5 days after the egg threshold spray. With tactic two, two additional standard rate sprays were applied, 5 and again 10 days after the egg threshold spray. With tactic one, lint yields were increased by 87 to 323 lb/acre, depending on the year, over untreated controls; with tactic two, lint yields were increased by 97 to 341 lb/acre.