GENERAL SITUATION: The weather has ranged from cold to warm, but mostly dry since early February. Planting of all crops has proceeded smoothly with the exception of a few days of cold weather delays the first few days of March. Soil moisture at planting depths has been ok for most, but deeper moisture is very short in most areas and once the crops are at a full stand, more rain will be required to keep the plants moving forward. Cotton, grain sorghum and corn that have emerged, all appeared to be in good shape. Many boll weevil traps have shown marked increases in weevils over the last three weeks.

Boll weevils have become more apparent in the last several weeks. Counts in traps all across the LRGV have shown increases. The trap numbers went so high in so many of our Valley wide traps that we have changed the scale on the graphs included with this week's Pest Cast from 5 weevils/trap/day to 10 weevils/trap/day in order for the real magnitude of the weevil increases to be recognized. The graphs in this week's newsletter are from the dates of February 19, 26 and March 5. You should be able to pick a location or two with a trap in your farm's general area to get an idea about how the weevil numbers are changing.

A couple of reasons for the increased weevil numbers in the traps may be found from experiences in the past. One reason could be that now that warm weather has fully returned to the LRGV, weevils have become more active in the area and therefore easier to detect with traps. Another reason could be that warm weather means field operations. In nearly every year we have been operating boll weevil traps in the past, large numbers of weevils have often been trapped near fields and other similar situations where the soil was being worked. Even traps next to fields which were not planted to cotton during the previous season, like improved pastures, often show marked increases in boll weevils when they were plowed or other field activities occurred.

The extent to which increased weevil counts in the traps will eventually develop into serious weevil numbers in this year's cotton crop has yet to be determined. Considering the problems growers had with boll weevils in much of the LRGV in 2000, growers who are farming fields which have a known history of early season boll weevil problems should consider applying overwintered boll weevil sprays.

Proper timing and coordination of overwintered boll weevil sprays on a community basis is critical to maximize effectiveness. When squares first appear on the most mature plants in a field, (even just a few plants) then that field should be treated immediately at least one time and possibly more depending on how much of an early season weevil problem that field has had in the past.

Applications should be timed no more than 5 to 7 days apart. If applied too early, the insecticide for weevil control will have been wasted for weevil control since the plants can not yet support boll weevil reproduction. If the applications are made too late-- after squares are easily found in the field--then the weevils will likely have laid eggs which cannot be killed and the potential for heavy and early damage from weevils will have been set.