98 Farmers’ Bulletin 1262. 
SWEETENED POISONS. 
Many attempts have been made to make poisoned substances at- 
tractive to the weevils by introducing sweets and other ingredients. 
Some known sweets, such as honey, have a slight attraction for the 
weevil, but not enough to assist in practical control. Numerous tests 
of such sweetened mixtures have been made and it has always been 
found that, though they may have a slight value, results are far in- 
ferior to those which can be obtained by applying dry calcium arse- 
nate under the same conditions. 
CONTACT POISONS. 
Poisons designed to kill the boll weevil by suffocating them have 
been proposed. They can not, of course, be effective against the imma- 
ture weevils within the cotton fruit. Normally, also, the adult weevils 
are found inside the bracts of squares, where they can not be reached by 
sprays. Numerous chemicals have been found which, if placed directly 
on the weevil, will cause immediate death, but this does not mean that 
these chemicals are of the slightest value when applied in the field. 
In the first place, they are nearly always exceedingly injurious to 
the cotton plant, and furthermore, when applied to the plant under 
field conditions, do not come in contact with the weevils sufficiently 
to kill any appreciable number. In spite of the numerous chemicals 
tested, not a single contact poison has been found to have any prac- 
tical value in field use against the weevil. 
REPELLENTS. 
In the same way it has been claimed that numerous chemicals, fumi- 
gants, etc., have a repellent value against the boll weevil. Almost 
every conceivable compound has been tested for this action and not 
a single one has been found which had the slightest repellent action 
against the weevil. 
OTHER PROPOSED REMEDIES. 
Many other remedies have been suggested for the weevil. Literally 
hundreds of these have been carefully investigated, and it has been 
found that the claims of their advocates were based on faulty observa- 
tions or careless experiments. It is true that many of them when 
placed directly on the weevil will cause immediate death, but they 
are still found valueless when used in the field. The claims made at 
different times of the repellent power of tobacco, castor-bean plants, 
and pepper plants against the boll weevil have no foundation what- 
ever. In fact, none of these plants has the least effect in keeping 
weevils away from cotton, 
