Remote sensing is essential for both sampling and implementing wide-area control tactics for Tarnished Plant Bug in Mid-South cotton. Site-specific pest management for cotton insect control strongly depends upon integration of sampling techniques with a geographic information system (GIS) that employs remote sensing (RS) information. Remote sensing is the template that directs both the scouting efforts and the building of spatial, variable-rate pesticide prescriptions. When spatial information is joined to producer and consultant experience the need for precise, numerically based decisions are dramatically lessened because imagery efficiently apportions cotton fields into various habitats relevant to the population biology of the pest. As a result, the spatial and temporal information can be used to improve the timing and placement of pesticide applications to locations only where intervention is necessary. Therefore, if spatial sprays are correctly timed over a large area, then populations of plant bugs are sufficiently controlled with minimal inputs of pesticides. However, a site-specific approach to cotton insect control on a large-scale requires the establishment of clear channels of communication between managers of adjacent fields and farms.
Species 1: Heteroptera Miridae Lygus lineolaris (tarnished plant bug)
Keywords: remote sensing, site-specific pest management
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