Would You Know a Cotton Fleahopper if You Saw One?

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I’ve had a couple of reports of cotton fleahoppers, and this pest has also been observed in our neighboring states.  The cotton fleahopper is a green colored plant bug (see picture below).  The adults are about one-half the size of tarnished plant bugs.  The immatures are smaller, lack wings and light green in color.  They can cause the shedding of small squares similar to tarnished plant bug. 

Photo by Winfield Sterling

I dealt with fleahoppers when I lived in Texas where they use a treatment threshold that ranges anywhere from 10-25 bugs per 100 terminals during the first three weeks of squaring.  In my experience, 20-25 fleahoppers per 100 terminals is often enough to reduce square retention below acceptable levels.  The good news is that cotton fleahopper infestations should be controlled by the typical rates of Carbine, Centric, Intruder and imidacloprid recommended for tarnished plant bug.

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