With a good rain today (Thursday May 7), now is a good time to consider your plan for thrips management in cotton and peanuts for 2026.
The first step is to consider how your planting date affects your thrips management, using the thrips risk predictor tool from NC State. This tool forecasts the risk of heavy thrips injury to cotton, specific to a given location and target plant date. An example output from the tool at the Tidewater AREC in Suffolk can be seen below. Because the model uses local weather data, the closer to planting you are when you check, the more accurate the model will be. In this example, the model looks very different than when it was checked prior to today’s weather. It will also change significantly for different locations, so it is worth your time to enter your own information. As of May 7, for the Tidewater AREC, cotton planted between 5/9 and 5/12 will be at elevated risk for thrips injury.
Cotton planted into the high risk windows may benefit from the addition of an in-furrow insecticide targeting thrips. You can also recheck the model after planting to target your scouting efforts and determine the need for foliar insecticides. In the above example, if we had planted cotton on 4/29, we would be monitoring it carefully for thrips injury as it emerges and grows. The most consistent economic return on a foliar thrips spray will come from an application just as the first true leaf is visible. The thrips risk model also generates an optimal spray date, as indicated by the red dot on the figure below. This is an underutilized feature of the tool, and we are testing the value of this model output in the 2026 season.
This tool is specifically designed for cotton, but planting date also has an impact on thrips in peanut. In 2025, we found significantly higher thrips pressure and tomato spotted wilt virus incidence in early planted (late April) peanuts relative to mid or late may. Imidacloprid (Admire Pro) in furrow at planting can provide some thrips suppression, but efficacy has decreased over time, and it is likely insufficient for high-risk scenarios. There are other at-plant options including AgLogic and Thimet, but they are more expensive. We are generating more extensive efficacy data for all at-plant options in 2026. For earlier planted peanuts, scout carefully to determine the need for a foliar application in addition to at-plant insecticides.
The next thing to consider is what insecticide to use, if a foliar application is made. In 2025, we identified tobacco thrips populations with reduced susceptibility to Acephate in Virginia (~ 75-79% mortality on average). We are continuing to monitor this situation in 2026. Hemi SC provides excellent control for both tobacco thrips and western flower thrips and is a viable alternative. This product must be applied either in combination with an herbicide or with a non-ionic surfactant to achieve good control. For peanut, Exirel (cyantraniliprole) can provide good control as a foliar application.
One additional consideration for foliar management are differences in species composition. Western flower thrips have histroically been more difficult to manage with acephate. In 2025, we had a higher proportion of western flower thrips in cotton than usual. Look out for future updates on species composition for 2026.
