Still haven’t had a rain?  I can’t spin this.  If you are not irrigating or had a good rain, drought is seriously hurting yield potential.  So what does this mean in terms of insect control?  There is talk about abandoning the crop or discontinuing insect management.  In some cases, it makes sense to relax treatment thresholds, but we need to maintain some level of insect control on crops that still have some potential.  Below are some comments for your consideration … mostly applying to dryland crops under severe drought stress.

1. Corn – There should not be much need for further insect control efforts.  Anyone battling southwestern corn borers in non-Bt corn should have already made any necessary applications.  Most the late planted corn is Bt and does not have enough yield potential to justify additional investments for insect control.
2. Soybean – With a good and general rain, there is still some yield potential left in this crop.  Until then, minimize your investment in insect control to only necessary applications.  This is not the time for automatic insecticide applications or applying “yield enhancement” products.  Do not relax treatment thresholds for stink bugs or corn earworm … both are 36 insects per 100 sweeps … unless you think the crop is a complete loss.  Remember, stink bugs and corn earworms feed on seed, and they probably eat the same amount of seed regardless of the yield potential.  Fortunately, insect pressure remains generally light.
3. Cotton – Still haven’t had a rain?  There is still some yield potential in this crop.  Maintaining high square retention is not realistic and may actually further stress the crop.  However, even a poor crop can be made worse if insect pests are allowed to feed unchecked.  Continue to manage spider mites, plant bugs, stink bugs and bollworms.  Remember that the most expensive insecticide application is the one that doesn’t work.  Fortunately, there are some insecticides (and tank mixes) that are relatively inexpensive and effective …. synthetic pyrethroids in combination with Acephate (0.5 -0.67 lb ai), Dimethoate 4E (6-8 oz) and Bidrin (2-4 oz) come to mind.  For mites, one of the abamectin products such as Agri-Mek will be the economical choice.

Consider relaxing the drop cloth threshold for tarnished plant bugs to 5 per drop cloth where drought has seriously impacted yield potential.  Also consider increasing the bollworm/tobacco budworm threshold to 8 larvae per 100 plants (as we normally recommend as the crop approaches cutout).