Movement of immature stink bugs on individual cotton plants

Stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) have become one of the most important insect pests of cotton production in the southeastern US. Feeding by stink bugs can result in boll abscission, lint staining, reduced lint quality, and reduced yields. Managing these pests is difficult because Bt cotton cultivars offer no protection and one of the primary species, brown stink bug, is tolerant of pyrethroid insecticides. The objective of this project was to characterize stink bug movement on individual cotton plants to develop more efficient scouting strategies. Movement was studied using time lapse videography of immature southern green stink bugs and brown stink bugs. Fourth to fifth instars were dusted with fluorescent orange dust and then released on a single flowering cotton plant in a growth chamber; each plant contained bolls with 4 different diameters (1.1-1.5, 1.6-2.0, 2.1-2.5, and 2.6-3.0 cm). Eight high resolution digital video cameras were focused on bolls to record stink bug activity over 5 days. Data were recorded and analyzed by one-way ANOVA to examine differences in time spent on bolls of each age versus other parts of the plant. Results suggested that total time stink bugs spent on bolls with1.0~1.5 cm diameter groups was significantly less than the other three groups. Small bolls (1.0~1.5 cm) generally abscised after stink bug feeding.