How to Prosper in Boll Weevil Territory

by George Howard Alford

Winter plowing of all cultivated fields is therefore another effective way of reducing the number of weevils, as the thousand or more weevils per acre in the cracks and holes in the ground and under the grass, weeds, trash and cornstalks can practically all be killed by deep winter breaking.

Picking Off the Weevils: After the hibernating weevils emerge from their winter quarters in the spring and reach the young cotton, there is little further movement until the general dispersing season in August, September and October. The fact that the weevil does not move about much except in the fall makes it possible for the individual farmer to accomplish results from his own efforts in fighting the pest. There is little danger of weevils coming in from other fields until in August, by which time the cotton crop is normally set. For this reason, there need be no fear that time will be wasted which is spent in thoroughly picking off the weevils from the young cotton plants before the squares begin to form.

Where the food supply of the weevil has not been destroyed early in the fall and strength added to this blow by plowing under the corn stalks, trash, weeds and other vegetable matter that serve as hibernating quarters, and by destroying practically all of the weevils hibernating along the fence rows, hedges and ditch banks, the over-wintered weevils are often sufficiently numerous to puncture all the squares as fast as they form. Where this is the case, no bottom crop and seldom a middle crop of cotton will be made unless the weevils are picked off and the punctured squares destroyed.

An early cotton plant. The fruit limbs are low and close together on the stalk and the joints are short.
Plants of this structure fruit early, rapidly and are well adapted to boll weevil conditions.

The possible progeny of a single pair of weevils, during a season, has been estimated at 12,755,100. Nature has provided a number of agencies to prevent such excessive multiplication; nevertheless, the picking off of a single pair of weevils from the young cotton plants may mean millions less later on.

Before squares form on the cotton, the over-wintered weevils that have come out of winter quarters feed on the opening leaves or buds of the young cotton plants. Early in the morning it is an easy matter to find the weevils in the buds, where they can be easily picked off and destroyed.

The only reason why the weevils cannot be eradicated by thoroughly picking them off, is that large numbers of over-wintered weevils do not emerge until after the squares begin to form. As soon as the squares form, the weevil gets on the inside of the bracts and feeds only by inserting its beak deep into the squares. After the squares begin to form, it is hardly practicable to pick the weevils off.

Destroy All Punctured Squares: The weevils that survive the winter are all in the adult stage. They breed only in the squares and bolls and therefore cannot multiply until squares form. The most conspicuous indication of the presence of the boll weevil is the flaring of the square. When the weevil punctures a square, it turns yellow and the bracts flare open. The punctured squares usually fall to the ground in a few days.