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September 22, 2000South Texas growers discuss benefits of eradication
(ABILENE) — Cotton producers in the South Texas/Winter Garden Eradication Zone are completing the 2000 harvest, and the outlook appears to be positive. Weevil numbers are low, production is on the rise, and many producers credit the efforts of the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation Inc.
“The program is going excellent right now. We had a good early year and good stalk destruction,” said Danny May, who farms near Port Lavaca. “We had some setbacks in seasons past with the floods and the hurricanes … This year has been a good one.”
Hurricane Brett created setbacks for the program in 1999 when it hit the region, leaving numerous fields untreatable and preventing trapping for several weeks. Weevil numbers increased, but the program was able to re-establish control. This helped reduce weevil populations and set the stage for a more productive 2000 season.
Paul Pustejovsky of Taft, and Bob Watley of Odom, agree that eliminating the boll weevil from the region has resulted in increased production.
“I made good cotton. My yield was up,” said Watley. “The program is working, and they managed to keep the weevils in control during the season. If I had to fight the weevil, I don’t think I would have.”
Although May has not experienced dramatic increases in production, he said the boll weevil is no longer the yield-loss culprit. “I can’t say that I have increased my yields yet. The question is how much I would I have made if I had boll weevils.”
“The thing is our yield is related to our weather pattern. I have had yield loss due to the weather and due to the fact that I planted on land that had cotton on it the year before, and that isn’t good. My yield loss has not been due to the boll weevil.”
Not always a supporter of the program, Pustejovsky says he is glad to have eradication in his zone. His initial misgivings have been replaced by increased confidence in the program and its benefits.
“I feel positive about it – more than I thought I would. As the program goes on I am more and more positive. We scout differently now than we did before the program, and we now use our beneficial insects.”
Pustejovsky said that while some growers feared that beneficial insect populations would be adversely reduced, that has not been the case. With the help of Foundation and extension personnel, growers are learning how to use these “good” insects.
Pustejovsky said that before the eradication program began, “We knocked out all of our beneficial insects. Once the boll weevil program started, after the first year the boll weevil population started dropping, and then the amount of spraying decreased, so our beneficials have gone up.”
He also credits the use of integrated pest management and not having to do his own spraying for weevils.
Besides beneficial insects, all three growers agree that having a program in their area is beneficial to their cotton production, and what they are paying is far less than growers not in the program are paying to control insects.
“The only thing I have to compare to is my neighbors who aren’t in the program. Some sprayed 3-4 times early in the season maybe even before first bloom. They ended up spraying eight, nine, ten times or until they ran out of money,” May said. “So you are looking at between $50-$80 per acre to spray each time. I am paying $23.14 (per acre) and I don’t have to fight the weevil.”
Pustejovsky expressed a similar view. “In Jackson County they don’t have a program,” he said. “We have been in a weather pattern where we have had warm winters the last five years. If you use Jackson County as a benchmark of the type of situation we would be in without the program, I would deem it cost effective because the weevil problem was getting worse yearly before eradication began.”
