How to Manage Pests
UC Pest Management Guidelines
Selecting a Variety
(Reviewed 5/13, updated 5/13)
In this Guideline:
Consider planting pest-resistant varieties if Verticillium, Fusarium, or root knot nematode have been a problem in your fields in the past. Other options in varietal selection include transgenic cotton with herbicide tolerance or Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton to control certain caterpillar pests.
The tables below describe variety choices related to pest management. New varieties become available regularly. If no data exists on a new variety that you would like to try, then try the following:
- Talk to your local farm advisor or seed company representative about suitable varieties.
- As a test, plant 2 acres of the new variety if you have a known history of Verticillium or other target pest in your field.
Table 1. Verticillium resistance in Acala, Non-Acala, and Pima varieties.
||A range of resistance exists within this group, but most have a high degree of resistance.
||A range of resistance exists within this group, but many are highly susceptible.
||Little is known about resistance. Variety trials in progress.
Table 2. Varieties tolerant or resistant to Fusarium wilt and caterpillars.
||Comments on tolerance
|Fusarium race 1
|This variety has tolerance to Fusarium race 1.
|Fusarium race 4
||Pima varieties: Phy-800, Phy-802RF, Phy-805, DP-360
||These varieties have a relatively high level of resistance to Fusarium race 4. Other varieties range from highly susceptible to moderately susceptible, depending on soil inoculums levels.
|Pink bollworm, Western yellowstriped armyworm, beet armyworm, and loopers
||Bollguard II transgenic and other Bt varieties*
Bt varieties of Non-Acala Upland (CA Uplands)
|Effective suppression of pink bollworm (Southern deserts), plus additional suppression of armyworm and loopers.
* Resistance of pink bollworm to Bt cotton varieties may develop over time.
UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines:
UC ANR Publication
- L. D. Godfrey, Entomology, UC Davis
- P. B. Goodell, UC IPM Program and Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Parlier
- E. T. Natwick, UC Cooperative Extension - Desert Research and Extension Center, Imperial County
- D.R. Haviland, UC Cooperative Extension, Kern County and UC IPM Program
- V. M. Barlow, UC Cooperative Extension, Riverside County and UC IPM Program
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