The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1922-07-14
GREATER NUMBER
OF BOIL WEEVILS
Department Urges Farmers To Get
Busy And Begin Using
Poison

| lHIS veal ID G.
according to records on the emer-
gence of the insect from nearly all
of the cotton States, accumulated
by the Delta laboratory of the Bu-
reau of Entomology of the United
States Department of Agriculture,
! al Tallulah, La. This situation was
| forecast some months ago. In many
districts where accurate counts
have been made, there are now as
many weevils in the fields as are
ordinarily present a month later,
when the first summer-bred brood
has started to appear. With any
thing like normal weather condi-
tons this is going to mean a tre-
mendously rapid increase in the
weevil damage, and this will have
an important bearing on the pro-
gram to be followed by those using
calcium arsenate for the control of
the weevil.
Ordinarily the department re-
commends starting poisoning when
from 10 to Is per GEM of the cot
ton squares have been p%unctured by
the weevil. As a general rule this
condition does not arise until after
the newlyJbred weevils have start
ed to emerge from the squares.
This year, however, many fields
have been found where there are
already sufficient weevils present
to destroy practically all squares
as fast as formed. In other words,
such cotton will never start bloom
ing unless the weevils r con-
trolled, and from the very outset so
per cent or more of the squares
are punctured. Tt is necessary to
poison earlier than ever before.
There is no advantage in poisoning
the cotton before the squares form,
as the weevils are continuing to
emerge from Information during
this period and furthermore they
are doing the crop no harm. Where
a heavy infestation occurs it will
be advisable to make the first ap-
p~lication just as soon as the cotton
starts squaring freely, or about
the time the plants average from
4 to 5 squares each. The regular
poisoning schedule should be start
ed at that time and continued along
the lines of the usual recomm rda-
tons for controlling this eac??y in
festation of weevils.
Another very important effect If
this heavy infestation will be felt
later in the season. When TIE wee
wills first emerge from Information
they move around very little as
long as they can find an ample sup
ply of unpunctured squares for
their use but just as soon as the IN
f~estation becomes sufficiently heavy
to p%uncture practically all
squares these weevils start to msve
in search of fresh pastures. In an
ordinary season this means that a
farmer usually has only the weevils
bred in his W cotton to contend
with until some time from the lat
ter part of July to the end Of Au-
gust, depending on the locality
Migration of weevils will probably
start several weeks earlier this
year than usual; and, in addition
to having to control his W infes-
tation earlier by poisoning, the
planter can expect that before the
fruit set during the period of pro-
lection has had time to mature
there will be an immigration OF
weevils from imprisoned cotton.
Every day a large crop of new
weevils will move into these poison
ed fields and it is going to take
continuous, thorough poisoning to
protect to maturity the crop that
| has been allowed to set by n
earlier applications.
Successful weevil control this
year is going to require more ef-
fort and more poison per acre than
has ever been the case in the past.
On the other hand, wherever the
land is sufficiently fertile to justify