COTTON OR WEEVILS 
By J. L. Wess, Associate Entomologist, Division of Cotton Insects, Bureau of 
Hntomology, and F. A. MERRILL, Senior Agriculturist, Diwision of Agricul- 
tural Instruction, Office of Cooperative Extension Work, Extension Service.* 
CONTENTS 
Page Page 
The cotton-boll weevil___--_______- 2 | How to fight weevils with poison__~ 10 
How a weevil grows ____~-___--___ 4 | A few rules to follow____----_____ 14 
The damage a weevil does_________ 6 | Other ways of destroying weevils 
Where the weevil came from and and helping the cotton plants to 
where) it is) now 222 222227 7 BOW" A) GOOG GOO so 5 15 - 
How to control the weevil so as to 
MEOLECE ROUT, COttone == 2 ee 9 
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. 
Not all plants are equally good as food for man. In fact, the vast 
majority of plants grown in the differeat parts of the world he will 
not touch as food. Plant-eating animals are much like man in this 
way; they do not eat all the different kinds of plants, but pick or 
choose those they lke 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—we 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 Piprce, W. D. THE MEXICAN, COTTON-BOLL WEEVIL: A SUMMARY OF 
THH INVESTIGATION OF THIS INSECT UP TO DECEMBER 31, 1911. U.S. Congress, 62d, 2d sess., 
Senate Doc. 305, 188 p., illus. 1912. (U.S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Ent. Bul. 114.) HUNTER, 
W. D., and Coap, B. R. THE BOLL-WEEVIL PROBLEM. U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers’ Bul. 1329, 
30 p., illus. 1923. 4 
