The corn earworm (bollworm) flight out of corn started over the past weekend. A few cotton fields have reached what we use as the egg threshold in conventional varieties (10 eggs in 100 terminals). Our long-standing recommendation is to treat BGll and Widestrike varieties with a single application of the pyrethroid of choice at the highest labeled rate, 5 to 7 days after the egg threshold. In most areas, that should happen next week. Even with the potential for corn earworm/bollworm pyrethroid resistance/tolerance (see the other July 28 advisory), I think a high rate of pyrethroid is still a good choice for cotton, as it has performed very well in past years. The difference compared with soybean (where we do recommend non-pyrethroids) is that in cotton, we only have to control the few worms that have escaped the Bollgard/Widestrike insect toxins. Are these escapes easier to control because they have been exposed to the Bt toxins? There are also some stink bug hangers-on in some fields, and we are seeing a shift from predominantly brown stink bugs to predominately green stink bugs, which are easily controlled with normal pyrethroids. So, for the money, consider a single high rate treatment of your pyrethroid of choice. There is a lot of confusion about some of the pyrethroid products, especially those combining bifenthrin and zeta-cypermethrin (e.g., Steed, Hero). We have attached a table that provides the amounts of active ingredient of each insecticide, for the recommended lowest and highest labeled rates for cotton bollworm/stink bug contorl. In general, you can get more active ingredient per acre if you fall back to the single-insecticide products (e.g., Brigade, Mustang). Additional information: hero-steed-mustang-brigade-table-july-28-2011-docx