A boll weevil management plan for the lower Rio grande Valley of Texas

摘要

The authors take the position that the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation program following the Frisbie-Brazzel Plan (Frisbie and Brazzel, 1990) put in place in the spring of 1995 in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas (LRGV) contributed to the massive cotton crop failure that season. Therefore, an eradication effort modeled after the Frisbie-Brazzel Plan is not suitable for the LRGV and should never again be implemented. We feel there is a much better and cost-effective way to suppress the boll weevil for profitable cotton production in the LRGV. A realistic and workable boll weevil management plan would have an absolute six month host-free period as its base with pre-emptive sprays for the surviving overwintering boll weevil population and uniform boll weevil insecticide tank mixes with defoliants. The expense of boll weevil pheromone traps would be eliminated. The goal of the management plan would be not to eradicate the boll weevil, but rather to strongly suppress the population to an extremely low level each year. The management plan would be environmentally friendly and utilize the sound integrated pest management practices for the LRGV that have been developed over the last twenty-five years. In no way would the management plan put the ability of the cotton grower to "make a crop" in jeopardy.