NEW ORLEANS (AP) Louisiana and Arkansas have stepped up boll weevil trapping because two of the destructive, long-snounted beetles were found in northern Mississippi.
The head of Mississippi’s boll weevil eradication program says he thinks the two males probably hitched a ride on a vehicle, though nobody knows for sure how they arrived in Batesville. Farrell Boyd says intensive trapping within a mile of the spot where they were found in a trap on Sept. 29 hasn’t turned up any more weevils.
Boll weevils did more than $23 billion in damage to U.S. cotton but are now eradicated from all cotton-producing states except part of southern Texas.
Arkansas has increased trapping at entry points from Texas and Mississippi. Louisiana has boosted trapping along Interstate 20 in eastern Louisiana.
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