Boll weevils on the run

MUNDAY – Hot, dry weather conditions this year favored two boll weevil eradication efforts under way on the Rolling Plains, said a Texas Agricultural Extension Service entomologist.

“There are two active boll weevil eradication programs on the Rolling Plains – the Rolling Plains central zone and the Rolling Plains northern zone,” said Emory Boring, Extension entomologist based at Texas A&M’s Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Vernon. “Next year will be a critical period in the central zone.

“Fewer insecticide applications will be made there, and remaining boll weevil infestations will be spotty. Most insecticide applications there will occur from mid-June through mid-July and from mid-August through September.

“But trapping to gauge weevil numbers will continue at the same pace as this year. By the end of 2001, the central zone will probably be pretty close to their eradication goal.”

Boll weevil numbers are low in the northern zone, which begins in Hardeman and Foard counties and stretches east through Wilbarger, Wichita, Archer and Clay counties, he noted.

“Most irrigated cotton in the northern zone is located in Hardeman and Wichita counties. This year’s drought helped raise weevil mortality there, and lower September treatment thresholds have pushed weevil numbers well below those in the western counties of this zone,” Boring said. “There is little boll weevil migration from the north or south into this zone – thanks to its isolation from weevil-infested counties further to the east, and eradication programs in Oklahoma and the Rolling Plains central zone.”

Boll weevil migration has been a problem on the western side of the northern zone – especially around Turkey, Texas, the entomologist said.

“Even so, the addition of about 56,000 acres of cotton below the Caprock in Motley, Dickens, Kent, Briscoe, Garza and Crosby counties should help curtail weevil migration,” Boring said. “Producers and landowners in these counties voted to become part of the Rolling Plains northern zone in May. Diapause control applications started on this acreage in early September.

“This additional acreage establishes a well-defined boundary, and better isolation, for the western part of the northern zone, and will help limit weevil migration into the northwest part of the central zone.”

Trapping will continue to be an important part of both zone’s eradication programs.

“Workers in both zones will again place boll weevil traps around fields, after producers establish the 2001 cotton crop,” Boring said. “If there are fields in your area without traps by the time cotton reaches the four-leaf stage, contact the eradication program work unit in your county.

“Trapping, and monitoring trap numbers, tells us when to make insecticide applications. It’s very important that these applications are made where over-wintered boll weevils are moving into young cotton. This keeps weevils from depositing eggs in squares that are ¼-inch and larger. If producers and landowners continue to work closely with their eradication zone, we can lessen the cost and time necessary to achieve eradication on the Rolling Plains.”

There are eight active boll weevil eradication zones (programs) in Texas, operated and governed by cooperative efforts between producers and the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation. In late September, the Southern Rolling Plains zone was the first to declare its counties (Coke, Coleman, Concho, Irion, Mason, McCulloch, Runnels, Schleicher, Tom Green, and southern Taylor) “weevil free.”

There are three active boll weevil eradication zones on the High Plains. Producers in two other High Plains zones will soon decide when, and at what cost, to “activate” their eradication programs.

The Texas Agricultural Extension Service estimates that boll weevils cost the state somewhere between $25 million to $50 million annually, before eradication programs were initiated.

Eradication programs in regional zones are first approved by producers, and are funded by a combination of farmer assessments and state monies.

More information on the boll weevil eradication effort under way in Texas is available by visiting the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation site ( http://www.txbollweevil.org).