Boll weevil
The boll weevil is a
beetle measuring an average length of six millimetres . The insect crossed the
Rio Grande near
Brownsville, Texas to enter the
United States from
Mexico in 1892 and reached southeastern
Alabama in 1915. It remains the most destructive
cotton pest in
North America. By the mid 1920s it had entered all cotton growing regions in the U.S.
On December 11, 1919, the citizens of
Enterprise, Alabama erected a
monument to the boll weevil, the pest that devastated their fields but forced residents to end their dependence on cotton and to pursue mixed farming and manufacturing.
Encyclopedia
The
boll weevil is a
beetle measuring an average length of six millimetres . The insect crossed the
Rio Grande near
Brownsville, Texas to enter the
United States from
Mexico in 1892 and reached southeastern
Alabama in 1915. It remains the most destructive
cotton pest in
North America. By the mid 1920s it had entered all cotton growing regions in the U.S.
On December 11, 1919, the citizens of
Enterprise, Alabama erected a
monument to the boll weevil, the pest that devastated their fields but forced residents to end their dependence on cotton and to pursue mixed farming and manufacturing.
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.
By mid-1921, the boll weevil had entered
South Carolina. In a 1939 interview for the
Federal Writers' Project, South Carolina native Mose Austin recalled that his employer was adamant "He don't want nothin' but cotton planted on de place; dat he in debt and hafter raise cotton to git de money to pay wid." Austin let out a long guffaw before recounting, "De boll weevil come...and, bless yo' life, dat bug sho' romped on things dat fall." Austin remembered that the following spring, his employer insisted on planting cotton in spite of warnings from his wife, his employees, and government agricultural experts:
- De cotton come up and started to growin', and, suh, befo' de middle of May I looks down one day and sees de boll weevil settin' up dere in de top of dem little cotton stalks waitin' for de squares to fo'm. So all dat gewano us hauled and put down in 1922 made nuttin' but a crop of boll weevils.
- "Always Agin It," Place Chapin, South Carolina, John L. Dove, interviewer, January 24, 1939. American Life Histories, 1936–1940
The next year, Austin's employer tried the same ill-fated experiment. Ultimately, the man lost his farm and moved with his disgruntled wife to
California.
The boll weevil contributed to the economic woes of Southern farmers during the 1920s, a situation exacerbated by the
Great Depression.
Following
World War II the development of new
pesticides enabled
farmers to again grow cotton as an economic crop, but at great expense and environmental risk. In 1978 a test was conducted in
North Carolina to determine if it was feasible to eradicate the weevil from the growing areas. Based on the success of this, area wide programs were begun in the 1980s to eradicate them from whole regions. These are based on cooperative effort by all growers together with the assistance of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture . The program has been successful in eradicating weevils from
Virginia and the Carolinas,
Georgia,
Florida, south
Alabama,
California, and
Arizona. Efforts are ongoing to eradicate the weevil from the rest of the United States. Continued success is also based on prohibition of unauthorized cotton growing, outside of the program, and constant monitoring for any recurring outbreaks.
Some
entomologists believe that the success of the program is based just as much on the
predation of the
fire ants as on the human eradication efforts.
Trivia
Between 1996 and 2000, the minor league baseball team in
Kannapolis, North Carolina was called the
Piedmont Boll Weevils, a nod to the city's heritage as a textile mill town.
A fine restaurant in San Diego is called "The Boll Weevil".
The
University of Arkansas at Monticello's sports teams are known as the Boll Weevils.
The band The Presidents of the United States of America did a song called
Boll Weevil on their 1995 album The Presidents of the United States of America.
Buster Ezell performed a song called The Boll Weevil twice during the
Fort Valley State College Folk Festival of 1941.
Respected Folk/Blues musician
Huddie Ledbetter wrote a song known as The Boll Weevil, or alternatively, De Ballet of De Boll Weevil. This song was also covered by Detroit band
The White Stripes on numerous concert occasions.
The singer
Elvis Presley made a reference to a Boll Weevil in his song “Little Sister.”
Nina Simone scornfully describes the subject of the song "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter" as having "a mouth like a herd of boll weevils."
The North Mississippi Allstars recorded a "Mississippi Boll Weevil" on their 2006 album Electric blue Watermelon.
A daily passenger train on the
Seaboard Air Line Railroad in the 1930s and 1940s along the Carolina coast was known as "The Boll Weevil Express."
Rock band
Clutch made a reference to a Boll Weevil in the song "Rock n' Roll Outlaw."
Rock bank Indian Ocean recorded a song "Boll Weevil" on their Desert Rain Album.
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