GENERAL SITUATION: Generally good field and weather conditions for crop planting at this time. Rainfall in amounts ranging from .75 to 3.5 inches was received across the LRGV about two weeks ago. That set both dryland and irrigated fields up for excellent planting conditions. Large numbers of fields were being fertilized following the recent rains in preparation for planting. Fields of corn, grain sorghum and very low numbers of fields of cotton have been planted to date. Generally, the number of boll weevils trapped have been very low compared to 2000.

New Boll Weevil Trap Lines Established

We have started some boll weevil pheromone trap lines across the LRGV. The purpose of the trap lines is to help determine if the recently established 7 voluntarily implemented boll weevil suppression zones are being successful in reducing boll weevil activity in their areas by the various management techniques they have indicated they will employ this year. The trap lines run into and out of 5 of the seven zones and we will see if the weevil numbers caught in the traps is eventually different between suppression and non suppression areas. Of course, the ultimate measurement of success will be if growers in the suppression zones reduce boll weevil sprays and the damage that weevils can cause. While there may not be significant differences between those suppression zones and other areas in the LRGV early in the season, the end result by this fall and into next year could be major if the suppression efforts work as planned.

The traps were started in January and the first three weeks of trap records are enclosed for your information. We have also enclosed a map showing the locations of the trap numbers which run from 0 to 124. Trap number 0 is placed on the Texas Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco off of FM 1015. The traps run north along FM 1015 and then east and south back to FM 1015 to just north of Progeso. All of the traps are approximately 1 mile apart from each other. The maps have the trap numbers and trap routes printed in red color. PLEASE save the maps since we will not be printing those each week. We will be printing the graphs which contain the trap records for each week we run the traps. We plan to run the traps until late November or early December of this year.

Hopefully, we will be able to get funding to run the traps again in 2002. This trapping study is being funded in part by a grant from the Texas Department of Agriculture without which we could not have conducted this survey.

Boll weevils have been much lower this year compared to last year at the same time (See tables below). We still are running the usual 3 locations that have been in operation for the last 15 years or so. The counts in those traps mirror the ones from our valley wide trap lines.