COTTON OR WEEVILS 9 
There is a certain period in the summer, usually about the middle 
of August, when the weevils become restless and seem to have an 
instinct to fly away. They seem to want to leave the cotton fields 
where they have been living and go to other fields where they can 
live more easily. As long as there are fields of cotton free from 
weevils anywhere near by, the weevils are sure to fly in that direction. 
The only thing that will stop the progress of the weevils across the 
country is a lack of fresh cotton fields or a very dry climate. Weevils 
do not breed fast when it is dry and hot and do very little damage 
at that time; they need a warm, moist climate. Thus in eastern Texas, 
where the summers are cooler and more moist, they infest all of the 
cotton territory, but in western Texas they have done very little 
damage because there the summers are very hot and very dry. The 
boll weevil can be found to-day in nearly every part of our cotton- 
producing area; it is also found in Mexico, Central America, and 
Cuba. . 
HOW TO CONTROL THE WEEVIL SO AS TO PROTECT OUR COTTON 
We know now that the cotton-boll weevil is thoroughly bad and 
that it does an immense amount of damage to our cotton. There can 
be no question about this. Now, what is the best and easiest way to 
get rid of these weevils? How can we protect our cotton from these 
ests ? | 
For the past 35 years many men have been trying to answer this 
question. A few of them have found out what we should do. Some 
of the wisest of these men have come to the conclusion that “ we can 
not get rid of the boll weevil, but we can control it sufficiently to 
permit good crops of cotton to be raised.” This is a help, even if 
we can not destroy every weevil there is. It is best to learn what 
they advise and to follow their directions if we possibly can. 
When we come to study how we may get rid of the weevils, we 
find that nature helps us, although this help is not enough to destroy 
every weevil. It has been estimated that the possible children, 
grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren 
of a single pair of weevils born in one season could amount to 
several million weevils if nothing happened to them. But some- 
thing does happen to a great many of them. If this something did 
not happen to them in a natural way, and if every one of them 
grew it would be impossible for us to raise a bale of cotton in our 
country, no matter what we did personality. 
Some kinds of climate will kill off the young weevils very fast. 
Often flower buds with the baby weevils in them fall to the ground 
and become so heated by the direct rays of the sun that the little 
creatures inside die in a short space of time. Too much dry heat is 
bad for the baby weevil, and this is the reason a cotton farmer likes 
a hot, dry summer; it gives his cotton a chance to grow. 
There are certain insects whose young like to eat the soft weevil 
erubs. ‘These tiny wasplike insects lay their eggs in the bodies of 
the boll-weevil grubs. The eggs hatch into very small grubs which 
feed on the boll weevils and kill them. Sometimes as many as 
half of the baby boll weevils in a cotton field are killed in this way, 
while in other fields yery few or none seem to be killed. 
Then there are other insects that cut their way into the infested 
flower buds and eat up the soft-bodied httle creatures found there. 
