The current interest in plant mapping for agronomic decisions has led to the application of such data to lygus bug control. The method extends the current missing square technique for lygus control decisions from the early period of the fruit set into the entire fruiting period. By evaluating the number of missing squares and the current boll load, the impact of lygus feeding can be directly measured. Validation of the method has occurred over two years in a limited number of field situations and has proven to be as accurate as current evaluation methods but less laborious. Additionally, the cost of data collection can be amortized over several other production decisions.