The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-05-12
THE BOIL WEEylL
ENTOMOLOGISTS FIND RELIEF
FOR COTTON'S ENEMY.

ENTOMOLOGISTS FIND RELIEF
| FOR COTTON'S ENEMY.
Beetle Will Be Attacked by a Hard
working Team of Ants Whose Ape
tites, However, Must Be Cultivated
| From Washington, d. c.. it is an
nounced that the doom of the boil weevil
is believed to be in sight. After work
ing for a decade and a half upon the
problem, the 'bugologists' of the De
partrnent OF Agriculture are confident
they have at last found the solution
The BEETLE it to be killed not by poison
or fumigators, not by fungous diseases
or the industrious Guatemalan ant, but
| by Woodworking little team that cot
ton growers have had right in their
plantations for generations, the common
wasplike fly that abounds throughout
the South. The reason the cotton men
did not Use these insects before is the
fact that neither they nor the experts
of the Agricultural Department had
any idea that the ant and the larvae
liked boil weevils for food There is
| II fo
educate their taste for the weevil They
may live side by side for generations be-
fore it occurs to The former to try the
latter for food. But when they do ac-
quire the weevil taste they become pos
sessed of all Unsuitable hunger for it that
never dies until they either eat up all
the weevis in sight or give up their
efforts to live.
| The only task that confronts the
Agricultural Department scientists and
the cotton planters, therefore, is to Gull
tivate the appetites of these insects as
rapidly as possible. With the end in
view of educating the proper taste for
weevil food the Agricultural Depart-
ment has started on the task at the Dali
las experiment FARM The scientists
discovered that in those parts of the
country where the weevil has been es
tablished for number of years the red
ants and the fly larvae were eating the
cotton pests in great numbers. In the
locations where the weeyil has lately
made its appearance they did not mo-
lest them. 1t was, therefore, apparent
that the ants and the grubs with the
educated taste were the ones needed on
the experiment farm, SO large number
Of them were collected from the neigh
borhood of Waco
A map just issued by the department
shows that the territory infected by the
weevil has extended i'll all directions.
i this season making the usual advance Of
about fifty miles.
This brings it directly up to the Mis-
sissippi river, and while it was at one
time thought that stand might be
made at that point in its advance has
been given up. Through Mississippi
Alabama and Georgia, States which
have not yet been attacked the experts
believe the weevil will thrive to a great
er extent than in Texas, for there is
more moisture and vegetation and the
development will be hepled by the eli
mate.
The last winter has been mild and
| dry and the department scientists fear
| that these favorable conditions will
make the weevil plentiful the. coming
season. The same conditions will pro-
due. many ants and weevil destroying
woHns, and they will be taken into the
newly invaded territory, where there are
experiment farms, and every induce
ment will be given the planters to intro
duce them privately. Instructions will
also be, given as to the destruction of
certain weeds upon which the ants and
| flies live, and it is held that this will
| drive the insects more extensively into
| the cotton field and cause their adoption
of the new food. The region now in
lcluded in the infested district embraces
one-third of the cotton producing lands
of the United States. The weevil has
travelled altogether SIS miles since its
appearance in 1892, or an average OF
al I-2 miles each year. Through the
various methods of combating it the
production of the infested country has
| been brought back to all approach to
the normal and in the ant and fly there
is hope of permanent solution of the
problem of protection against the pests.
The Commoner: In the death of
Frederick Driscoil commissioner of the
A Dbl