i.vtz.C.t.t-''-- 



250 



other pest problems. Two alternatives for a more acceptable solution to these 

 proble-ns should be given serious consideration by those responsible for dealing 

 with tlem. (1) The institution of a well-organized and unified boll weevil 

 management program designed to reduce populations each year to a level that 

 will net require in-season applications of insecticides. This is necessary 

 to make possible effective management of the bollworm, budworm, and other 

 secondary pests by integrated systems that rely primarily on natural biological 

 control. (2) The institution of a program designed to eliminate the boll weevil 

 from all areas of the Cotton Belt and maintain elimination of incipient infesta- 

 tions that may result from infiltrations from Mexico or from wild hosts in 

 South Texas. Based on an analysis of the dynamics of the boll weevil and 

 current methods of suppression, intensive use of insecticides will be required 

 in the fall each year to reduce overwintered populations to a level that will 

 assure no need for in-season insecticide applications. However, based on simu- 

 lated suppression methods, the prospects are excellent that such reduced popula- 

 tion will be amenable to further suppression or elimination by employing the 

 boll weevil pheromones and sterile males, two techniques that are completely 

 selective in action on the target pest. The principles and mechanisms of 

 suppression inherent in these new techniques when::employed alone and when 

 employed as components in integrated systems add new dimensions to boll weevil 

 suppression strategies. The use of in-field pheromone traps as a method of 

 suppression and as a highly sensitive method of detecting low-level populations 

 shows unusual promise, based on theoretical suppression models. 



480. . 1976. Boll weevil eradication experiment. (Abstract)* In Public- 

 Supported Cotton Research. Proceedings of Conference of Collaborators 

 from Southern Agricultural Experiment Stations. U.S. Agric. Res. Serv. 



^ [Rep.] ARS-S-70, p. 12. 



During the late 1960' s pilot plant tests were undertaken to determine if an 



