What does a boll weevil affect?

Boll weevils can completely destroy a cotton crop. Boll weevils eat all the buds off the plants; they destroy any cotton that the plants manage to produce by eating and laying eggs in the cotton.

1. What is a boll weevil and what damage did it cause?
2. What crop does the boll weevil destroy?
3. What was the biggest effect of the boll weevil?
4. Are boll weevils beneficial?
5. Do boll weevils bite?
6. Do boll weevils still exist?
7. How did boll weevil affect farmers?
8. Are boll weevils harmful to humans?
9. What eats a boll weevil?
10. Did the boll weevil cause the Great Migration?
11. How did the boll weevil affect the Great Migration?
12. What was the effect of the boll weevil in South Carolina?
13. Do boll weevils eat corn?
14. What killed the boll weevil?
15. How did farmers get rid of the boll weevil?

What is a boll weevil and what damage did it cause?

The boll weevil's decimation of the cotton industry in the South had implications for the entire region. ... The pest was a driving force behind the “great migration” of poor tenant farmers into northern cities, and the state's dependence on cash-crop production left its soil depleted and prone to erosion.

What crop does the boll weevil destroy?

The destruction of cotton fields by the boll weevil spread from Texas across the South and Southwest so that by the Great Depression, cotton farmers had already suffered from many years of devastatingly poor harvests.

What was the biggest effect of the boll weevil?

The arrival of the boll weevil caused large declines in cotton yields and cotton acreage (Ransom and Sutch, 2001). During 1909–1935 the average reduction from full yield in the American South was 10.9 %, ranging from 0.8 % in Missouri to 17.8 % in Louisiana (Hyslop, 1938, Table 1).

Are boll weevils beneficial?

The cotton boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis grandis, was the most important pest of cotton in much of America's Cotton Belt. ... The weevil's importance was due not only to the considerable damage it does but also to its disruption of management programs that target other pests.

Do boll weevils bite?

Weevils contaminate infested food with their feces and cast skins, causing more damage than they eat. So, an infestation may render entire packages or pantries of food inedible. Stored product weevils do not bite and they do not cause damage to dry, decay-free wood inside homes.

Do boll weevils still exist?

The boll weevil has been eradicated in the Southeast states Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Likewise, the boll weevil has been eradicated from Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi.

How did boll weevil affect farmers?

Boll weevils eat all the buds off the plants; they destroy any cotton that the plants manage to produce by eating and laying eggs in the cotton. ... In the past, many farmers turned to farming peanuts and other crops after boll weevils destroyed their ability to produce cotton.

Are boll weevils harmful to humans?

The truth is, weevils are NOT harmful to humans. Accidentally eating them along with your food does not cause any ill effects.

What eats a boll weevil?

Its natural predators include fire ants, insects, spiders, birds, and a parasitic wasp, Catolaccus grandis. The insects sometimes emerge from diapause before cotton buds are available.

Did the boll weevil cause the Great Migration?

The boll weevil infestation and its devastating effects became one of the driving forces behind the Great Migration. Great Migration: In the Southern US, African Americans endured blatant discrimnation and segregation as part of Jim Crow laws, as well as poor economic conditions.

How did the boll weevil affect the Great Migration?

The Boll Weevil

African Americans became sharecroppers, a system in which small farmers rented farm space, supplies and tools to harvest a crop. ... As a result of the boll weevil's work, there was less of a demand for agricultural workers, leaving many African Americans unemployed.

What was the effect of the boll weevil in South Carolina?

The infestation led to the introduction of the peanut—an alternative crop popularized by the Tuskegee Institute's George Washington Carver. Peanut cultivation not only returned vital nutrients to soils depleted by cotton cultivation, but also proved a successful cash crop for local farmers.

Do boll weevils eat corn?

How Weevils Get in Your Food. Similar to other pantry pests, granary and rice weevils will infest and feed on whole grains and rice as well as nuts, beans, cereals, seeds, corn, and other such foods. ... Once fully grown, the adult weevil eats its way out of the grain/seed.

What killed the boll weevil?

Malathion 57% is an organophosphate insecticide that can be applied to crops and non-crop plants to kill a wide variety of insects, including Boll Weevils. For large croplands, Malathion is primarily used with a professional skid sprayer or boom sprayer.

How did farmers get rid of the boll weevil?

First, fields would be sprayed with a pesticide, most often malathion, to control the pest. Then, insecticide-laden traps baited with the pheromone, or scent, that boll weevils give off when they want to mate would be laid in fields. The smell lured the bugs to their deaths.