Cotton:

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (January 25, 2010) - In addition to directly affecting boll weevil, the winter freeze will also effect over-wintering and food sources for the weevil.  The recent cold weather could yield the best chance in a decade to eradicate the boll weevil in South Texas according to a Texas AgriLife Extension Service expert.

“It’s really the best opportunity to bring about the death knell for the weevil,” said Noel Troxclair, AgriLife Extension entomologist. “That’s the way I envision it.”

The region was making strides in eradicating the boll weevil until some major setbacks a few years ago, said Troxclair, who is based at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Uvalde.

In 2007, for example, a protracted rainy period meant entomology scouts couldn’t check traps, delaying aerial applications. The rain also washed off insecticides when they were applied.

This year, the area had wet weather leading up to the freeze. Uvalde and surrounding counties had highs of about 16 degrees and lows of about 10 degrees. In some areas, the low reached about zero degrees.

“Because it was kind of damp before the freeze, it should have an adverse effect on the boll weevil – a direct effect,” Troxclair said.

In addition to directly affecting boll weevil, the winter freeze will also effect over-wintering and food sources for the weevil, he said. A wet fall resulted in a lot of cotton seed in the soil that germinated, but were killed by the freeze. There were a lot mature volunteer plants that were a year old, and the freeze killed them too.

Troxclair said the effect the freeze had on the weevil won’t be known for certain until the growing season and the results from traps are collected.

“And I don’t mean we’ll eradicate it this year,” Troxclair said. “But we could get it to the point that they won’t recover.”