Weevil Presence Jumps In SRP Zone

Avatar para Matt Hopkins Por Andréa Klosterman Harris|7 de novembro de 2007

“We were weevil free until late August,” says Randal Schwartz of the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation. According to Schwartz, the foundation sprayed 145,000 of the zone’s more than 200,000 cotton acres to control the late-arriving pests. Officials believe many of the weevils arrived in the zone with a tropical storm in September.

Said Schwartz: “We had seen no weevils and then we caught them as they moved out of South Texas,” he said. “We began treatment in the south edge of the zone and as the weeks progressed weevils moved further into the zone. We know they are moving.” He added that this is the most in-migration they have seen in the previous five or six years.

Both farmers and the foundation need aerial applicators as farmers are applying harvest aids and eradication officials are trying to prevent weevils from reproducing. Controlling the migrating weevils this fall means fewer sprays necessary in the spring. “We’re most concerned when the crop is ready to harvest,” Schwartz said. He also said the foundation would work with farmers to accomplish both tasks. “When the crop is ready it makes sense to harvest and then get the stalks out of the fields as quickly as possible. Volunteer cotton has become a problem and we have to get that out, too. We are treating some volunteer cotton.”

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