234 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 7 



Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of 



the American Association of Official 



Horticultural Inspectors 



(Papers Continued) 



QUARANTINE AGAINST THE MEXICAN COTTON BOLL 



WEEVIL 



By W. D. Hunter 



Compared with certain other pests the boll weevil has attracted little 

 attention at the hands of legislators. It is likely that the Phylloxera 

 in Europe and the San Jose scale in this country have been the cause 

 of many times the amount of legislation that has bee i enacted against 

 the weevil. Nevertheless, the restrictions that have been directed 

 against it are numerous considering the time that it has been an impor- 

 tant factor in the cotton industry and the inherent difficulties in formu- 

 lating logical quarantines. As it is, every state in the cotton belt has 

 enactments on its statute books which are aimed at the restriction of 

 the spread of the weevil. One territory has similar legislation. The 

 federal government has considered it in a statute and in regulations 

 of the Post Office Department and several foreign governments have 

 edicts against it. 



The basis for all the quarantines against the boll weevil in the United 

 States is that it has been spreading rapidly into new territory, and that 

 its life history is such that certain commodities would be very likely to 

 carry it. The natural limitation on all legal restrictions has been that 

 the insect spreads by flight. This dispersion, however, is very limited 

 compared to that of insects like locusts and others that fly over enor- 

 mous distances. The usual annual advance of the weevil has been 

 only about fifty miles. It is therefore apparently perfectly feasible to 

 prevent spread which might take place in farm commodities over terri- 

 tory considerably more extensive than that which would become in- 

 fested by the normal flight. 



The specific points in the life history of the weevil which seem to jus- 

 tify quarantines in addition to those mentioned need to be noted in 

 this connection. In the cotton-picking season large numbers of adult 

 weevils are crawling about the cotton plants — frequently over the bolls 

 and the exposed lint. Many of these specimens are naturally taken 

 along with the seed cotton by the pickers. They go into the sacks, 

 then into the wagons, and later to the gins. Here it has been found 

 that many of the weevils escape destruction in the process of ginning. 

 It is true that a certain number are killed by the saws of the gin and 



