Welcome
Welcome to the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Program web site. This site has been developed to provide information to cotton producers and the general public about the process and progress of boll weevil eradication across the state.
Nine zones elevated to functionally eradicated status
At the request of the Texas Boll Weevil
Eradication Foundation’s board of directors, the commissioner of
agriculture has declared nine previously “suppressed” boll weevil
eradication zones “functionally eradicated.” This status change
brings the total of functionally eradicated zones to 11 of 16, and
establishes 89 percent of Texas’ cotton acreage as weevil-free.
Functionally eradicated, by definition, means
that less than 0.001 weevils per trap/per week have been found
during the most recently completed cotton growing season. In simple
terms this declaration of functional eradication means boll weevils
are not reproducing nor causing economic damage in an area of Texas
where more than 3.8 million acres of cotton were planted in 2010.
The nine zones, El Paso/Trans Pecos, Permian
Basin, St. Lawrence, Western High Plains, Southern High
Plains/Caprock, Northwest Plains, Northern High Plains, Northern
Rolling Plains and Panhandle are joining the already functionally
eradicated Rolling Plains Central and Southern Rolling Plains (SRP)
zones.
“This milestone for the boll weevil eradication
effort in Texas would not be possible without the investment from
the Texas Legislature, the federal government and our state’s cotton
producers,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. “These
groups, through their cooperative efforts, have ensured that Texas
remains the number one cotton producing state in the United States.”
This year the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication
Program covers some 5.7 million cotton acres in 16 Texas and four
New Mexico zones. Of those 5.7 million acres, just over 5 million
are found in West Texas and New Mexico. In the 11 zones that make up
this area, the Foundation has had only one weevil catch in the SRP
zone in 2010.
The remaining 647,000 acres are in five East
and South Texas zones where the battle wages on against the pest.
Here, measurable progress is also being made.
In the Upper Coastal Bend zone, weevil numbers
have been drastically reduced with only one weevil catch this year.
In the Northern Blacklands zone only three weevils have been
captured across the zone and 97 percent fewer acres have been
treated compared to 2009. Year-to-date trap catches in the Southern
Blacklands and South Texas/Winter Garden zones have also been
reduced by 84 and 88 percent respectively, compared to the same time
in 2009.
The one area of concern is the Lower Rio Grande
Valley. Here the program was making great strides similar to those
made in the other East and South Texas zones until Hurricane Alex
and tropical depression two (TD2) scattered weevils preventing
trapping and treatments for an extended period of time.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen this before,” said
Foundation Chief Executive Officer Lindy Patton. “A storm blows
through and scatters weevils all over, even in areas where we had
them pretty well cleaned up.”
Patton says after Hurricane Alex, TD2 added
insult to injury by creating islands of untreatable, hostable cotton
after flood gates were opened as a result of the storm.
“This storm added more water to already
saturated fields and made monitoring and treatments almost
impossible,” he said. “The tragic part is not only the set back to
the weevil program, it’s all the cotton the farmers lost to the
extensive flooding.”
Patton says the program will recover. He says
the main concern is to get back on track in those areas where storms
have set back progress.
“Hopefully, farmers will be able to get their
stalks out of the fields and minimize damage by eliminating plants
that will harbor weevils,” said Patton. “Stalk destruction this year
will be key to gaining lost ground in 2011.”
2009 Program Year End Summary
At the recent 2010 Beltwide Cotton
Conference in New Orleans, Program Director Larry Smith delivered an
update on boll weevil eradication program activities through 2009.
According to Smith, the
Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation (TBWEF) completed a
successful year.
In 2009, boll weevil eradication activities were carried out in all
Texas and eastern New Mexico cotton fields, on a total of 5,410,346
certified cotton acres. For the year, every zone reported either no
weevil captures, or reductions in boll weevil captures compared to
2008. Four New Mexico and 11 West Texas zones are approaching
program completion. In addition, strong progress was made in the
Northern Blacklands (NBL) and Upper Coastal Bend (UCB) zones in 2009.
In 2010, program operations in South Texas/Winter Garden, UCB, NBL,
and Southern Blacklands will concentrate on identification, trapping
and treatment of all cotton (including volunteer cotton in other
crops and non-crop areas) and working with the Texas Department of
Agriculture (TDA) to achieve early, thorough stalk destruction.
As
boll
weevils are being
reduced to below economic damage levels in all areas of the state,
Texas
cotton producers have set all-time production records in three of
the last six years.
It is clear
that boll weevil eradication is critical to the sustainability of
cotton production in Texas and that the
elimination of the
boll weevil is a key factor that has enabled growers to produce
these
record crops.
Equally essential, however, is the partnership that exists between
cotton growers and the boll weevil eradication program.