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The Boll-Weevil Problem. 27 
Consequently this procedure can only be recommended under rare 
conditions, when the infestation is not excessively heavy and when 
an abundance of cheap labor is available. 
Many attempts have been made to collect the weevils by means of 
mechanical devices. Hundreds of such devices have been tested and 
all are to be condemned. They do not collect an appreciable number 
of weevils unless they are so violent in the agitation of the cotton 
plant that they are actually injurious to it. 
TRAP ROWS. 
The idea of attracting weevils to a few early plants or trap rows 
has frequently been advanced. Practical experience, however, has 
shown that the only possibility of success in such a procedure lies in 
the use of entire fields adjoining hibernation quarters, the fields to 
be poisoned later (see p. 20). The use of only a few rows as a trap 
crop has been found to be absolutely valueless. 
ATTRACTION TO LIGHTS. 
Many insects more or less resembling the boll weevil are attracted 
to lights. Many attempts have been made to destroy the cotton 
pest by taking advantage of this supposed habit. The boll weevil, 
however, is not attracted to lights. Numerous tests have been made 
in which many thousands of other insects were collected around 
strong lights in cotton fields, but not a single boll weevil was found, 
in spite of the fact that there were multitudes of these pests in the 
fields surrounding the lights. 
CHEMICAL TREATMENT OF SEED. 
Any money expended by the farmers in attempting to destroy the 
boll weevil by soaking the planting seed in chemicals in the hope of 
making the plants that are to grow from them distasteful or poison- 
ous to the insects would be entirely wasted. The same remark applies 
to the various proposed treatments of the plants or soil with chemicals 
which are supposed to be taken up by the plants to the detriment of 
the weevils feeding upon them. 
TOPPING OF PLANTS. 
The topping of plants is sometimes recommended for fields in- 
fested with boll weevils. This practice generally results in more 
harm than good, since it removes a portion of the plants upon which 
the weevil is most dependent for food during the latter part of the 
season, and furthermore practically always produces an exceedingly 
dense foliage growth which greatly reduces the sun control of the 
weevil stages and promotes such dangerous diseases as boll-rot. 
