How to Reduce Boll Weevil
Best Methods of Reducing the Number of Weevil to a Minimum—Results of Many Experiments Conducted
Remarkable results and profitable returns have been obtained by carefully applying the following methods of destroying the boll weevil:
1. Completely strip the cotton stalks of foliage, squares, and bolls—the weevils’ sole food supply—plow the cotton stalks under good and deep, or burn them at the earliest possible moment.
2. During the winter, destroy the rubbish in and about the fields, which might serve as hibernating quarters for weevils.
3. When the weevils appear on the new cotton in the spring, pick them off and destroy them.
4. Pick up all punctured squares and destroy them for at least one month after the first squares form on the cotton.
Importance of Destroying the Food Supply: The most important step in producing cotton in boll weevil territory is the early fall destruction of the foliage, squares, and immature punctured bolls on the cotton stalks, which constitute the weevils’ only food supply. Thousands of experimenters, including the United States Bureau of Entomology, Government Agents in Farm Demonstration Work, the Louisiana State Crop Pest Commission, and thousands of successful farmers substantiate this statement that the early fall destruction of the cotton stalks is the most effective method that can be employed for the reduction of the number of weevil.
An experiment conducted by the Bureau of Entomology in Calhoun County, Texas, showed that where the stalks on 410 acres of land were destroyed early in October, that the yield was increased $14.56 per acre. Another experiment was conducted on opposite sides of the Guadaulope River near Victoria, Texas. The stalks were burned on one farm the latter part of September and on the other they were allowed to stand until planting time. Forty acres, on the farm on which the stalks were destroyed, produced fifteen bales of cotton. Forty acres on the other farm made three and one-half bales.
Experiments conducted by the Louisiana State Crop Pest Commission are summed up in the following extracts from Circular No. 28: “Where the cotton plants were destroyed before October 15, only 3 per cent of the weevils survived the winter to infest the next year’s crop. Where the stalks were destroyed from October 15 to October 27, an average of about 15 per cent of the weevils passed through the winter successfully. Where the stalks were destroyed between November 1 and November 25, an average of approximately 22 per cent of the weevil survived the winter. Postponing the fall destruction of cotton stalks until the middle of December, or later, permitted over 43 per cent of the weevils to survive the winter and attack the next crop.” Where the stalks were destroyed before October 15, only 3 per cent of the weevils passed the winter. Where the stalks remained in the field until December 15, over 43 per cent of the weevils survived the winter. These figures certainly emphasize very strikingly the value of early fall destruction of the boll weevil’s food supply.