The program has enabled cotton farmers to reduce their use of pesticides by between 40 and 100 percent, and increase their cotton yields by at least 10 percent since the program’s inception.
In the winter months, it was previously believed that the weevils entered a form of hibernation or dormancy called diapause. But Showler has found that boll weevils generally remain active in during winter in the subtropics, surviving by feeding on the edible portion of orange, grapefruit and prickly pear cactus, and possibly other plants. Orange and grapefruit can sustain adult boll weevils for as long as eight months--more than enough to see them through the mandatory cotton-free winter period.
The research could help scientists develop new, biological and ecological approaches to controlling the boll weevils. Most of the new proposed tactics recommended by Showler and collaborators do not rely on insecticide use, and the one that does ensures that insecticides would be applied when they would be most effective