Due to these changes in cotton production, the number of insecticide applications on cotton has been reduced from the historical average of six to 12 to approximately zero to four on Bollgard planted acreage. This low spray environment has created a situation where low levels of several species, including plant bugs, fall armyworms, and stinkbugs, move into fields and increase in numbers over a period of several weeks, eventually reaching threshold levels. Beneficial insects offer only limited potential in reducing populations of these specific species. Plant bugs have been an erratic economic insect pest in cotton, with losses varying from year to year. In general, late squaring cotton is more susceptible to plant bug injury.
Plant bugs move to new hosts as older wild hosts mature, reduce flowering, and dry down.
Wet, cloudy weather in May and June tends to keep wild host plants along field borders lush and blooming over a longer period of time. This in turn lengthens the time wild hosts serve as a reservoir for plant bugs and extends the plant bug migration into cotton. Conversely, an extended drought in May results in poor survival of plant bugs during the generation prior to their movement into cotton. Damage from both species is similar to the plant bugs except the CPB is more of a mid- to late season boll feeder. CPB damage may be confused with stinkbug damage.