Spatially variable insecticide applications for early season control of cotton insect pests

Our research has shown that cotton insect pests, specifically tarnished plant bugs, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois) (Heteroptera: Miridae) can be controlled early season in commercial cotton fields in Mississippi, USA, using spatially variable insecticide applications. Technology was developed for using GIS-based map scouting and a technique called the line-intercept method for obtaining low-level insect population counts in both rapidly growing areas of cotton and poorer growing areas. Using these population characteristics in combination with heuristic knowledge of the cotton fields and with the GIS maps, a spatially sensitive map could then be developed that could drive a spatially variable insecticide application for the control of the insect pest. We outline the steps needed to develop an automated technology for overcoming the time-sensitive events for early season control of cotton pests. This technology not only includes software systems for processing multispectral images to spatially variable insecticide application maps for spray controllers in the field but also high-speed wireless local area network (WLAN) technology for automated delivery of these controller application maps and for acquisition of as-applied and harvest maps from the field.