The log cabin Democrat. [volume] (Conway, Ark.) 1908-current, 1912-01-30
WfEV|L SURVIVES
ZERO TEMPERATURE
MANY LIVE ONES FOUND
DEMONSTRATOR WEBB WARNS
FARMERS AGAINST OVER
CONFIDENCE.

Warning the farmers of Faulkner
county not to place their trust in the
recent zero weather as a protection
against the boil weevil, County Dem
onstrator S. B. Webb is urging them
to redouble their precautionary efforts
to prevent damage from the insects
next year. Even if only few pairs
survive, he says, they multiply so
rapidly that an entire crop could be
easily devoured unless measures are
taken to prevent their damage
81 have noticed stories in southern
papers recently" said Mr.. Webb to-
day, "to the effect that a temperature
of 20 degrees or lower would kill the
boil weevils, and the zero weather of
the early part of January would prac-
tically eXterminate them in this sec
ton. Such statements as these are
liable to do much harm if they are
generally believed, by putting the
farmers off their guard AS a matter
of fact, only last Saturday | saw sew
eral old dead stalks of cockle-burrs,
corn and cotton which, when broken
open, were found to contain large
numbers of weevils. They were not
dead, either, and when warmed lit
tie, became lively as crckets.
"The worst feature of it," Mr..
Webb continued, "is that only a few
weevils surviving will multiply SO
rapidly when warm weather comes
that even single pair, if unmolested,
ould breed progeny large enough to
devour an entire field of cotton. Boil
weevils breed even more rapidly than
house flies. We see very few live
house flies during February, but no
one would say on that account that
we shall have no flies next summer.
According to Mr.. ]. A Evans, one
of the best authorities in the south on
the boil weevil, each female weevil
will lay during her lifetime about 140
eggs. During the growing season,
while squares are plentiful, each of
these eggs will be placed, as a rule,
in separate square. So that in the
process of egg laying she destroys 140
squares, each of which is, of course,
a possible boil. Nor does the damage
stop with that, as she punctures other
squares for food The male weevil is
also feeding all the while on the
| @h,+ hot L.
get away with the cotton pretty fast
"From the time the egg is deposited
until the weevl energies from the
square is, roughly, from Is to 25
days, depending on the season. The
warmer the weather, the shorter the
time. The general average for all
generations during the year is about
20 or II days. On this basis, allowing
one week between each generation for
feeding, before the new weevils begin
to deposit eggs, three separate gener-
ations of weevils can be produced be-
tween July 1st and September 18TH
Practically one-half of each genera
ton Matched will be females. If you
will do little figuring on the assump-
ton that each female averages 140
eggs, that all hatch and no weevils
die during the period, you will reach
the startling conclusion that if you
have a single pair of weevils in your
cotton field when it begins to square,
he ~, hat AL
nearly 10000 when the second and
over 695,000 weevils when the third
generation had hatched. The exact
figures would be 140 weevils for the
first generation, $500 for the second,
and $4,000 for the third, a total for
three generations of 695,950 weevils,
not counting the original pair that
started all the trouble-all in less
than 80 days.
GAS a matter of fact, of course, in
crease at this rate, or anything near
lit, could never occur. But also you
will usually have good many more
than one pair of weevils per acre at
the start.
81 would urge our farmers to clean
up and burn every old stalk on their
fields, clean out the fence corners and
break the land as soon as possible.
Another very important thing is the
selection of seed. If you want to
make cotton crop this year, do not
plant ordinary gin run of seed. Many
merchants of the county are handling
improved selected seeds, and they may
also be obtained elsewhere. The few
lextra cents per acre for good seed