Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation

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Welcome

Welcome to the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Program web site. This site has been developed to provide information to cotton producers and the general public about the process and progress of boll weevil eradication across the state.

Nine zones elevated to functionally eradicated status

At the request of the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundations board of directors, the commissioner of agriculture has declared nine previously suppressed boll weevil eradication zones functionally eradicated. This status change brings the total of functionally eradicated zones to 11 of 16, and establishes 89 percent of Texas cotton acreage as weevil-free.
Functionally eradicated, by definition, means that less than 0.001 weevils per trap/per week have been found during the most recently completed cotton growing season. In simple terms this declaration of functional eradication means boll weevils are not reproducing nor causing economic damage in an area of Texas where more than 3.8 million acres of cotton were planted in 2010.
The nine zones, El Paso/Trans Pecos, Permian Basin, St. Lawrence, Western High Plains, Southern High Plains/Caprock, Northwest Plains, Northern High Plains, Northern Rolling Plains and Panhandle are joining the already functionally eradicated Rolling Plains Central and Southern Rolling Plains (SRP) zones.
This milestone for the boll weevil eradication effort in Texas would not be possible without the investment from the Texas Legislature, the federal government and our states cotton producers, said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. These groups, through their cooperative efforts, have ensured that Texas remains the number one cotton producing state in the United States.

This year the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Program covers some 5.7 million cotton acres in 16 Texas and four New Mexico zones. Of those 5.7 million acres, just over 5 million are found in West Texas and New Mexico. In the 11 zones that make up this area, the Foundation has had only one weevil catch in the SRP zone in 2010.
The remaining 647,000 acres are in five East and South Texas zones where the battle wages on against the pest. Here, measurable progress is also being made.
In the Upper Coastal Bend zone, weevil numbers have been drastically reduced with only one weevil catch this year. In the Northern Blacklands zone only three weevils have been captured across the zone and 97 percent fewer acres have been treated compared to 2009. Year-to-date trap catches in the Southern Blacklands and South Texas/Winter Garden zones have also been reduced by 84 and 88 percent respectively, compared to the same time in 2009.
The one area of concern is the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Here the program was making great strides similar to those made in the other East and South Texas zones until Hurricane Alex and tropical depression two (TD2) scattered weevils preventing trapping and treatments for an extended period of time.
Unfortunately, weve seen this before, said Foundation Chief Executive Officer Lindy Patton. A storm blows through and scatters weevils all over, even in areas where we had them pretty well cleaned up.
Patton says after Hurricane Alex, TD2 added insult to injury by creating islands of untreatable, hostable cotton after flood gates were opened as a result of the storm.
This storm added more water to already saturated fields and made monitoring and treatments almost impossible, he said. The tragic part is not only the set back to the weevil program, its all the cotton the farmers lost to the extensive flooding.
Patton says the program will recover. He says the main concern is to get back on track in those areas where storms have set back progress.
Hopefully, farmers will be able to get their stalks out of the fields and minimize damage by eliminating plants that will harbor weevils, said Patton. Stalk destruction this year will be key to gaining lost ground in 2011.

2009 Program Year End Summary

At the recent 2010 Beltwide Cotton Conference in New Orleans, Program Director Larry Smith delivered an update on boll weevil eradication program activities through 2009. According to Smith, the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation (TBWEF) completed a successful year.

In 2009, boll weevil eradication activities were carried out in all Texas and eastern New Mexico cotton fields, on a total of 5,410,346 certified cotton acres. For the year, every zone reported either no weevil captures, or reductions in boll weevil captures compared to 2008. Four New Mexico and 11 West Texas zones are approaching program completion. In addition, strong progress was made in the Northern Blacklands (NBL) and Upper Coastal Bend (UCB) zones in 2009. In 2010, program operations in South Texas/Winter Garden, UCB, NBL, and Southern Blacklands will concentrate on identification, trapping and treatment of all cotton (including volunteer cotton in other crops and non-crop areas) and working with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to achieve early, thorough stalk destruction.
As boll weevils are being reduced to below economic damage levels in all areas of the state, Texas cotton producers have set all-time production records in three of the last six years.

It is clear that boll weevil eradication is critical to the sustainability of cotton production in Texas and that the elimination of the boll weevil is a key factor that has enabled growers to produce these record crops. Equally essential, however, is the partnership that exists between cotton growers and the boll weevil eradication program. This partnership is the cornerstone of the program and fundamental to the successes we've seen thus far.