So they simply grew more cotton—and spent more and more trying to drive away the bugs. As cotton boomed, so did the weevil. Farmers tried everything to get rid of the weevils: they planted early-maturing varieties of cotton in hopes that they could increase yields before the weevils got to them, experimented with arsenic sprays and powders, and burned their cotton stalks after harvesting. Theodore Roosevelt suggested importing a predatory ant from Guatemala to feed on the weevil.
At one point, one-third of all pesticides used in the entire U. By , the weevil had reached nearby Mobile County, Alabama. Like elsewhere, cotton was the main cash crop, and with the weevils now in their fields, farmers were getting smaller and smaller yields.
Sessions, a man who lived in town and acted as a seed broker to farmers in need, saw the devastation and knew he needed to act. One of the few crops that could tolerate those conditions: peanuts.
After visiting North Carolina and Virginia, where he saw peanuts being grown, Sessions came back with peanut seeds and sold them to area farmer C. Baston planted his entire crop in peanuts. The result are numerous cotton fruit utilized by boll weevils for reproduction sites.
Economics Crop Info An abundance of information such as a profile of U. History of the Eradication Program. History at a Glance A little more than a century ago, Anthonomus grandis boll weevil migrated from Mexico to the U. In , the National Cotton Council officially recognized the economic havoc the boll weevil was wreaking on U. Eradication efforts have been stalled at the Texas-Mexico border, largely due to the instability created by illegal drug trafficking.
That instability has effectively made large cotton farms in Mexico inaccessible for treatment, creating a welcoming habitat for boll weevil populations to rebound.
Another problem in Mexico is the presence of non-cotton plant species that can host boll weevil. As a result, there is an ongoing battle to keep boll weevils in check in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, funded by an ongoing annual assessment from cotton-producing states, which is aimed at preventing — and tracking — the spread of boll weevil populations.
But this story also highlights the fact that that the boll weevil has been largely conquered in the U. For example, in the southeastern U. For example, those early investments by state and federal governments created the USDA-ARS research system that is still present today across the southern U.
This system continues to make a difference for U. Research units in areas that still have boll weevil populations are using cutting-edge technologies, such as population genetics and aerial infrared imaging, to track movement of the species and identify potential patches of host plants for destruction. As boll weevils have been slowly eradicated, state by state, these researchers and facilities have shifted research priorities to other issues and pests affecting crop production.
No one wants to fight another hundred-year war with a plant pest. Interesting article save the political commentary regarding the preposterous idea that building a border wall would somehow prevent Mexico from keeping their own crops free of weevils. Stop already. This article helps me to know what efforts had been done to eradicate these weevils. Such a good read.
Thanks, will surely try out pheromone traps to solve our weevil problem! I enjoyed reading this article, just a question is this the only bug or animal that the Government supported the eradication of a spices of anything!
Boll Weevil Anthonomus grandis. Click for more information. Declaring War on the Weevil Then, in , something novel happened. In early spring, boll weevils puncture the cotton buds and bolls in order to lay their eggs in them. It takes approximately 3 - 5 days for the eggs to hatch into larvae. Boll weevils live approximately 3 weeks, so many generations can breed in one season.
Most of the damage comes from the boll weevil larvae.
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