£INT 



State Crop Pest Commission 



OF LOUISIANA. 



JSJBCULAR/&0. 20. December, 1907. 



The Circulars of the State Crop Pest Commission are sent free of charge to all 

 farmers and fruit .rowers of Louisiana who make application therefor. 



The Insect Enemies of the Boll Weevil. 



A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THEIR NATURE AND HOW THEY DESTROY THE WEEVIL 



By W. D. Hunter, Wilmon Newell and W. D. Pierce. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



There are many means of controlling injurious insects such for 

 example, as the use of sprays or poison, and the destruction of the 

 unused portions of the crop. These methods may be said o be direct 

 ones inasmuch as they aim at the actual killing of the insects and are 

 not devices for circumventing them. I„ the case of the cotton boll 



ZZ:^JZ d TT i0 ? ° f the Pla,UH aml Sathering 0f the infested 

 r^! e only direct means which have been found at all effective 



The other steps in the control of this insect, such as through prepara- 

 tion of the son, early planting, intelligent fertilization, and extoa good 



ea h'fan 11 ' Z^T^ t0 the ^ ^ ° f ^troying the stalks 

 each fall. Although these direct methods are effective they involve 

 more or less trouble and expense. A better method consists in the utili 

 zation of the agencies which are provided by nature. This circular 

 dea s with the work now under way in co-operation between the Crop 

 Pest Commission and the Bureau of Entomology of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, in devising means for obtaining the best 

 possible results m the utilization of such natural agencies affecting the 

 oil weevil as can be controlled more or less easily by man. It is hoped 

 hat these methods will eventually assist greatly in the warfare aga ins, 

 the boll weevil. At the present time, however, it must be understood 

 that this circular deals with methods which have not yet been put into 

 practice on a large scale, and its publication i s intended to inform 

 those interested of what work is under way. In the meantime of 

 course, no farmer should fail to make use of the expedients to be re- 

 sorted to in raising cotton where the boll weevil is present that have 

 been brought out in the publications of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture and of the State Crop Pest Commission. 



INSECTS ATTACK ONE ANOTHER. 



In a state of nature most insects are held in control by other in- 

 sects which prey upon them. When an insect succeeds in getting away 

 iron, ,ts native enemies or is artificially introduced into a country where 

 there are no insects to attack it, damage must be expected if a culti 

 vated crop is attack,.!. When the cotton boll weevil became established 

 in the United States it was free from all its tropical enemies and rapidly 



