M 



COTTON OR WEEVILS 



By J. L. Webb, Associate Entomologist, Division of Cotton Insects, Bureau of 

 Entomology, and F. A. Merrill, Senior Agriculturist, Division of Agricul- 

 tural Instruction, Office of Cooperative Extension Work, Extension Service. 1 



Page 



The cotton-boll weevil 2 



How a weevil grows 4 



The damage a weevil does 6 



Where the weevil came from and 



where it is now 7 



How to control the weevil so as to 



protect our cotton 9 



CONTENTS 



Page 



How to fight weevils with poison 10 



A few rules to follow 14 



Other ways of destroying weevils 

 and helping the cotton plants to 

 grow a good crop 15 



No doubt you know that the many different creatures living upon 

 the earth eat many different kinds of food. A man eats several kinds 

 of meat and a great many more kinds of vegetables. The meat he eats 

 comes, of course, from the body of some animal, and the vegetables 

 grow in the soil. 



Our cattle, and wild animals of the same kind, such as the buffalo 

 and the deer, live entirely upon plants. On the other hand, such 

 fierce and dreaded animals as the lion and tiger live only on the 

 flesh of other animals. These other animals, however, feed mostly 

 on plants. Thus we see that the vegetable kingdom really provides 

 the food for the animal kingdom. 



t Not all plants are equally good as food for man. In fact, the vast 

 majority of plants grown in the different parts of the world he will 

 not touch as food. Plant-eating animals are much like man in this 

 w y ay; they do not eat all the different kinds of plants, but pick or 

 choose those they like best. Some animals that are heavy plant 

 feeders have a very large variety of plants from which they can get 

 their food, while others eat only a few plants and so must carefully 

 select what they are to eat. 



When we come to the lower classes of animals — the insects, for 

 instance — w T e find that some of them can eat only one or two kinds 

 of plants. They would starve to death if they could not get the 

 special plant that they can eat. 



The cotton-boll weevil is one of these insects. It has only two 

 or three plants on which it can feed, and cotton is one of them — in 

 fact, the one it likes best. The young of this weevil are never known 

 to feed upon any plant except the cotton, although the grown-up 

 insect will, under some circumstances, eat other plants that are 

 close relatives of the cotton. 



1 Acknowledgment : The authors have consulted freely the following publications : 

 Hunter, W. D., and Pierce, W. D. the Mexican cotton-boll weevil : a summary of 

 the investigation of this insect up to December 3i, 1911. U. S. Congress, 62d, 2d sess.. 

 Senate Doc. 305, 188 p., illus. 1912. (U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Ent. Bui. 114.) Hunter, 

 W. D., and Coad, B. R. the boll-weevil problem. U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bui. 1329, 

 30 p., illus. 1923. 



