Impact of insecticide seed treatments on darkling beetles in Texas South Plains cotton, 2025

A field study evaluating the impact of insecticide seed treatments on Blapstinus darkling beetles in seedling cotton was conducted at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research farm in Lubbock, Texas. Cotton was planted on 3 June using 40-inch row spacing at a seeding rate of 42,000 seeds per acre. The field was irrigated using furrow irrigation. The trial followed a randomized complete block design with 4 treatments and 4 replications. Each plot consisted of 4 rows, 37 ft in length. Data collection included counts of live and dead darkling beetles at 16 days after planting (DAP), final stand count at 42 DAP, and lint yield. Beetles were counted at the base of 10 randomly selected plants in the central portion of the middle 2 rows of each plot. Stand establishment was assessed by counting plants in the middle 2 rows and converting the values to plants per acre. Seed cotton was harvested using a mechanical stripper, and lint yield was adjusted based on a 40% gin turnout. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, and treatment means were separated with Tukey’s test in the Agriculture Research Manager software (Gylling Data Management, Inc.). The number of live Blapstinus beetles did not differ significantly among treatments (Table 1). Plots treated with Gaucho 600 contained significantly more dead beetles than the untreated check. Stand count and lint yield did not vary significantly across treatments. Means within columns followed by a common letter are not significantly different (Tukey’s HSD, α = 0.05). mg ai/seed. oz wt/cwt. This research was supported in part by industry gifts of pesticides and research funding. None declared.