Its goal is to reduce the number of boll weevils entering wintering habitat. Discontinue when the crop residue is destroyed or killing frost occurs. The need for diapause treatments is based on damage rates in the field and pheromone trap captures. You can find recommended insecticides in MU publication M00146, Handbook for the Management of Insects and Plant Diseases , or at your local University Extension center. As of 1994, boll weevils had been eradicated from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, California, Arizona and parts of Alabama.
Active programs are underway in Alabama, Texas and parts of Tennessee and Mississippi.
In North Carolina, where the boll weevil has been eradicated the longest, cotton acreages have increased from fewer than 100,000 acres to more than 450,000 acres. Insecticide applications have been reduced by approximately 50 percent. In Georgia, insecticide applications have been cut from 10 to 12 per season to about four per season, and acreage has grown from fewer than 200,000 acres to almost 1,000,000 acres. A regional plan exists for eradicating the boll weevil from the mid-South growing region. Current plans call for an eradication program to begin in the Missouri production region in 1999-2000, at the same time as in northwestern Tennessee and northeastern Arkansas.