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Boll Weevils Get No Relief in 2010, NC Eradication Program Funded

Program administrators announced recently they are not going to cut the boll weevil any slack in 2010 either and set this year's eradication program assessment at $1.25 per acre. The money is to be used to monitor cotton acreage for the re-introduction of the pest to the state.

"We have been successful in keeping boll weevils from returning to North Carolina cotton fields through the trapping and monitoring program this assessment pays for," says N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. "In the past, early detection of minor re-introductions has kept the boll weevil from spreading in any significant way, and we want to keep it that way."

To allow for trapping and monitoring, cotton growers are required to certify cotton acreage information with their local U.S. Farm Service Agency office by June 30. The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services notes there were 373,600 acres of cotton in North Carolina in 2009, averaging out to be about one monitoring trap for every 51 acres of cotton. Over 7,200 traps were placed in the state in 2009.

For more information on the program, visit www.ncagr.gov/plantind/plant/entomol/BW.htm