2010 Program Year End Summary
The Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation (TBWEF) completed a
successful year in 2010. Program activities were carried out in 16
Texas and four eastern New Mexico zones on 6,070,792 mapped land acres
of cotton.
North and West Texas
In the West Texas zones, the boll weevil eradication program showed
good progress in 2010. Only 15 weevils were caught from the 5,324,749
mapped cotton acres in the 11 West Texas zones during the year. Of
those, 10 weevils were caught on the southern edge of the Southern
Rolling Plains (SRP) zone, and five were caught on the eastern edge of
the zone. The 10 weevils are believed to have originated from the
South Texas/Winter Garden (ST/WG) zone and moved into the SRP after
September 29, 2010. Four fields in Coleman County captured an
additional five weevils over a six week period with a total of not
more than two weevils in a field. There was no evidence of
reproduction in any of the West Texas zones.
South and East Texas
Weather was the limiting factor the program encountered in the South
and East Texas zones. In spite of this, 79,433 fewer weevils were
caught in these zones than in 2009, a 26 percent reduction. Boll
weevil captures were down in the ST/WG, Northern Blacklands (NBL),
Upper Coastal Bend (UCB), and the Southern Blacklands (SBL) zones
compared with the previous year. The UCB zone caught a single weevil,
while the NBL zone caught three. Program treatments in these zones
were aggressive during the early season. Volunteer cotton and cotton
plants growing in failed cotton fields planted to grain sorghum were
addressed by growers, and volunteer cotton was less of a problem in
2010.
In the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) zone, however, hurricanes and
storms significantly affected program operations and spread weevils
across the zone. The impact of the storms in the LRGV disrupted
trapping and treatment operations. Flooding conditions continued for
60 days following the tropical weather due to extended releases from
dams upriver. The LRGV was also impacted by the Mexican program in the
state of Tamaulipas. Growers there did not treat fields for boll
weevils following the tropical weather which lead to a significant
buildup of weevils along the river.
Statewide
Statewide, the acreage planted to cotton in Texas in 2010 was up
617,504 mapped acres (11 percent) from the previous year, and the 2010
cotton crop was the third largest on record in Texas in terms of total
production to date. Record Texas cotton crops have been recorded in
four of the last seven years. In fact, prior to 2004 there had not
been a record setting cotton crop in 58 years. This is significant
because the recent record-breaking production occurred after boll
weevil had been removed as an economic pest. In the last seven years,
yields have averaged 707.28 pounds per acre. Compared to the seven
years prior to 2004 when yields averaged 487.85 pounds per acre,
yields in the last seven years have increased by 219.43 pounds per
acre.
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