We have squaring cotton on the Texas Coast and that means we need to be scouting fields for cotton fleahopper. While other pests are present, such as aphids and thrips, the cotton fleahopper has the greatest potential to reduce yield or delay harvest.
Aphids are substantially below a treatment threshold of 50 aphids per leaf and most cotton is beyond the damage window for thrips.
The cotton fleahopper economic threshold I use is 15 cotton fleahoppers per 100 plants. I do not distinguish between adults and nymphs for counting fleahopper populations.
The thresholds are based on visual scouting. Check fields by looking in 10 plant terminals at 5 or more locations across a field. Larger fields need to have more locations checked.
Chemical control of the cotton fleahopper is not difficult. Common insecticides used for treating cotton fleahopper include: Acephate, Bidrin, Imidacloprid, Centric, Belay, Carbine and Diamond.
Table 1. Cotton Fleahopper nymphs and adults per 10 plant (Victoria County, 2015). Click Image to Enlarge
Table 2. Cotton fleahoppers per 10 plants at 3&7 days after treatment (Calhoun County, TX, 2015). Click Image to Enlarge
