Whole plant counts (visual in situ examination) for hooded beetles, Notoxus monodon F.; cotton fleahoppers, Pseudatomoscelis seriatus (Reuter); lady beetles, Hippodomia spp.; and collops, Collops spp., were made on ¼ acre of cotton to determine the best sampling-unit size. The insect counts were distributed according to the negative binomial, with k values increasing with sampling-unit size. The number of samples, linear row feet, and sampling time required for equal precision are illustrated for 7 sampling-unit sizes at 2 levels of precision. The single plant sampling-unit was determined as optimum for minimizing the variance.