Tuesday, April 15, 1997

Anti-weevil program in jeopardy on High Plains

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - While the Texas Supreme Court wrestles with the constitutionality of the state's boll weevil eradication program, the litigation might jeopardize another campaign that's been around 33 years.

The Plains Cotton Growers-sponsored diapause control program, designed to fight hibernating boll weevils before the spring crop is planted, probably won't materialize because of lack of funding.

"I'm basically stymied," said Roger Haldenby, PCG's boll weevil program coordinator. "I'm totally at a complete loss of where to go from here. It's up to the producers to decide what they want to do."

In recent years, the diapause program has been funded by assessments paid to the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation. However, a judge ruled last year that the foundation's collection methods were unconstitutional.

The Texas high court is mulling the ruling, but many growers have declined to pay their assessments in the meantime. The 1996 diapause program to fight the cotton-destroying pests only had enough funding to spray about half its normal territory, Haldenby said.

A recent study by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station estimated that the South Plains economy could take a $500 million annual hit if nothing is done to stop the boll weevils.

Foundation opponents have countered that boll weevils are little threat north of Lubbock, where winters traditionally have been too cold for the tiny pests to survive.

Surveys have found, though, that a more cold-hardy strain can live "just about as far north as cotton is grown," said entomologist Don Rummel.

"It's amazing to see the rapid spread of weevils in the past five years," said Rummel, with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. "It is definitely overwintering."

While weevils normally would perish in the single-digit temperatures the region experienced last winter, long-term snow cover kept the areas in which they hibernate much warmer.