Boll weevil may be down, but not out

The cotton industry's No. 1 enemy, the boll weevil, may be down but is still not out, said Texas Cooperative Extension experts.

"The boll weevil eradication program continues to make good progress overall, but 2007 will go down as a real learning year for the 13-year-old program," said Dr. Chris Sansone, Extension entomologist at San Angelo. "Boll weevil eradication in the Southern Rolling Plains Zone, made up of parts of nine West Texas counties was almost 100 percent successful until this year."

Sansone said when the program began in the fall of 1994, monitor trap catches of 3 million weevils were not uncommon. Today's catches of 2,000-3,000 seem insignificant in contrast.

"The boll weevil situation the Southern Rolling Plains Zone is not good," said Richard Minzenmayer, Extension entomologist for Runnels and Tom Green counties. "The Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation has sprayed a cumulative 230,000 acres (most fields needed no treatments, however, others required multiple treatments) of the zone's almost 210,000 acres. As of Oct. 22, aerial applicators were behind in spraying by about 10,000 acres.

"It's not a good situation, and producers are encouraged to get cotton harvested and the remaining plant material destroyed as soon as possible," he added.

Minzenmayer said problems started showing up in September when Tropical Storm Erin and other weather systems brought weevils along with some much-needed rain.

Minzenmayer said volunteer cotton re-sprouting on its own from last year's crop is proving to be a major problem.

"Tillage is the best way to control volunteer cotton, but producers practicing conservation tillage want to leave the crop residue on top of the soil to conserve moisture. "

Despite the problems, Sansone said the weevil eradication program is working well for the majority of the state.

"Dr. Charles Allen, program director for the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation, reports that the St. Lawrence area had only caught 54 weevils in their monitoring traps through mid- September compared with 667 weevils caught during the same period last year," Sansone said. "The Permian Basin Zone is also well below last year's levels. The only other captures in West Texas have been a single weevil south of Morton in the Southern High Plains/Caprock Zone and two weevils in the southwestern part of the Rolling Plains Central Zone."

Six West Texas zones - El Paso/Trans Pecos, Northern High plains, Northern Rolling Plains, Northwest Plains, Panhandle and Western High Plains - with more than 2 million cotton acres - have not caught a single boll weevil this year, he said.

Nearly all of the fields in the West Texas region have been trapped all season without catching a boll weevil, Sansone said.

The five South and East Texas boll weevil eradication program zones are another story.

"They've had many obstacles to overcome during the extremely wet 2007 growing season," Sansone said. "Trapping muddy turn-rows and getting fields treated as the rains continued week after week were challenges. The rainy weather also made control treatments less effective."

The South Texas/Winter Garden area saw no reduction in weevil numbers.

"Though this season has been troubling, it has served as a reminder that vigilance is the key to keeping the boll weevil in check. We just can never let our guard down."