Cotton Stainer
Dysdercus koenigii
Sap-Sucking Insects High Risk 12-16 mm
📖 Description
Cotton Stainer is a serious pest of cotton across India and tropical Asia. Both adults and nymphs pierce green bolls and suck the sap from seeds and lint, causing yellow staining of cotton fibers (hence ‘stainer’), premature boll opening, and seed weight loss. They also transmit Nematospora fungi that cause internal boll rot. The pest breeds on wild Malvaceous plants and migrates to cotton fields when bolls begin to form. Outbreaks are most severe in regions with continuous cotton cultivation and abundant wild hosts.
⚠️ Symptoms to watch for
- Yellowing of bolls, stained lint with red or yellow discoloration, premature boll opening, shriveled and light seeds, reduced oil content, transmission of cotton staining fungi (Nematospora) that rot internal boll tissues
🩹 Treatment
- Handpick and destroy adults and nymphs on young plants, apply neem oil 5ml/L, use recommended insecticides at flowering to early boll formation, destroy alternate hosts like Thespesia and Sida around fields
🌿 Organic treatments
- Handpick nymphs and adults on young plants, spray neem oil 5ml/L with sticker, apply Beauveria bassiana @ 5g/L, set up light traps @ 1/ha, destroy wild Malvaceae hosts around fields
🧪 Chemical treatments
- Acephate 75 SP @ 1 g/L, Lambda-cyhalothrin 5 EC @ 1 ml/L, Indoxacarb 14.5 SC @ 1 ml/L, Spinosad 45 SC @ 0.5 ml/L
🛡️ Prevention
- Plant synchronized cotton crops in an area, destroy wild hosts (Thespesia, Sida, Abutilon) near fields, timely harvesting to avoid prolonged exposure, use Bt cotton where appropriate, conserve predatory bugs and spiders, intercrop with sorghum or maize to divert adults
🪴 Affected plants
- Cotton, Lady's Finger (Okra), Hibiscus, Silk Cotton Tree, Kapok, Hollyhock, Thespesia
🦋 Natural predators
- Spiders, Reduviid Bugs, Praying Mantis, Birds, Lacewings
🌱 Host plants
- Gossypium spp., Abelmoschus esculentus, Bombax ceiba, Thespesia populnea, Sida spp.
🔄 Lifecycle
- Female lays 200-400 eggs in batches of 6-30 in soil crevices or on cotton bolls.
- Eggs hatch in 6-10 days.
- Nymphs pass through 5 instars over 30-50 days.
- Adults live 1-3 months and can fly long distances.
- Total life cycle 40-60 days; 4-6 generations per year.
📅 Season
- Active Aug-Dec on cotton, migrates to wild hosts off-season
🔎 Appearance
- Bright red and black bugs with a distinctive pattern.
- Adults have red head, pronotum with black markings, and yellowish-white band across the middle of the forewings with black spots.
- Nymphs are bright red with dark wing pads in later instars.
💥 Damage level
- High
🔁 Reproduction rate
- Fast
🗺️ Geographic regions
- Indian Subcontinent
- Southeast Asia
- Africa
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