Acephate was evaluated for control of cone and seed insects in southern pine seed orchards from 1980 to 1985. Insecticides compared with acephate during this study were azinphosmethyl, fenvalerate, malathion, and the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. Insecticides were applied aerially, by hydraulic sprayers, and by airblast sprayers. Experiments were conducted in loblolly pine seed orchards in Florida and North Carolina and in two slash pine seed orchards in Florida. Control of coneworms, Dioryctria spp., slash pine flower thrips, Gnophothrips fuscus (Morgan), and two seed bugs, the leaffooted pine seed bug, Leptoglossus corculus (Say), and the shieldbacked pine seed bug, Tetyra bipunctata (Herrich-Schäffer) was evaluated. Frost damage and a serious infection of southern cone rust, Cronartium strobilinum (Arth.) Hedgc, and Hahn, caused significant flower and conelet losses and may have obscured differences between treatment effects during some years. All of the insecticide treatments were equally effective in controlling coneworms. The percentages of trees infested with pine tortoise scale, Toumeyella parvicornis (Cockerell), and the striped pine scale, T. pini (King), and the numbers of scale insects per branch after five applications of insecticide, differed significantly for acephate and fenvalerate treatments.