Things continue to look relatively quiet on the pest front throughout the entire St. Lawrence area.  We did decide to go ahead and spray a couple of fields for bollworms this week in Region 1. Basically the same situation that we had last season, very good water, tall, lush cotton and worms appear to be overpowering the technology. This is a similar situation to what has been playing out throughout south and east Texas and the eastern part of the US. I am not overly concerned about a worm outbreak at this time, but I am checking fields, especially heavier watered cotton for worms.

I have also been picking up some aphids in “hot spots” especially where folks have recently treated for fleahoppers. At this time no fields have numbers that require treatment but need to have an eye kept on them. They also need to be considered if anyone makes a worm or stinkbug application in the future.

I am again going to combine all 5 regions into one general report because overall there is not a tremendous difference in regions. The majority of all fields that were checked this week were blooming. Blooming is looking great at this point with the average field still at 8 NAWF. Fields range anywhere from 4 to 11 NAWF. Irrigated fields need to be assessed for PGR needs, especially with the chances of rain coming this week. Quite a few fields are getting growthy.

A handful of fields that were looked at are still in the squaring stage. Only one of these fields picked up any CFH and they were well below threshold. Square sets remain very good for this time of year. Overall they range from 69-76% with the average being 72%. Beneficials continue to increase and look great. Overall, hope it rains this week.