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The Boll Weevil Eradication Program is a program sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that has sought to eradicate the boll weevil in the cotton-growing areas of the United States. It is one of the world's most successful implementations of integrated pest management. The program has enabled cotton farmers to reduce their use of pesticides by between 40 to 100 percent, and increase their yields by at least 10%, since its inception in the 1970s. By the autumn of 2009, eradication was finished in all US cotton regions with the exception of less than one million acres still under treatment in Texas.〔(Current Status of Boll Weevil Eradication Program, National Cotton Council, Fall 2009 )〕 ==History== Since its migration from Mexico in the late 19th century, the boll weevil had been the single most destructive cotton pest in the United States, and possibly the most destructive agricultural pest in the United States. The cost of its crop depredations has been estimated at $300 million per year.〔(Boll weevil economic impacts )〕 The control measures used have included a wide range of pesticides, including calcium arsenate, DDT, toxaphene, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, malathion, and parathion. In 1958, the National Cotton Council garnered the Congressional support to create the USDA Boll Weevil Research Lab. In 1959 J. R. Brazzel and L. D. Newsom published a paper outlining the winter dormancy (diapause) behavior of the boll weevil. Brazzel published the results of his first diapause control insecticide treatment trial in 1959, finding that methyl parathion treatments in the fall significantly reduced the overwintering population, especially when combined with plowing of the stalks into the ground. More sophisticated trapping and monitoring devices were developed over the next decade. Further progress was made when the male boll weevil pheromone was identified in the 1960s; the insects could be lured into traps baited with this pheromone, further reducing their reproduction, and enhancing the monitoring system. The first full-scale eradication trial began in 1978 in southern Virginia and eastern North Carolina. After initial success, the USDA's APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) agency established an eradication plan. The cost of the program was borne both by APHIS (30%) and by the producer (70%). Since the weevil can travel long distances quickly, it was important to implement the program on a regional basis. Expansion of the program usually required cotton producers within the area of proposed expansion to pass a referendum with at least a two-thirds majority. Some states passed legislation to help growers pay their share of program costs. The program was extended into the southeast and southwest during the 1980s. Eradication is now complete in all cotton growing states except Texas, where problems along the Mexican border have halted the program there. Eradication was not complete in Texas as of 2012.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation, Inc. )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Boll Weevil Eradication Program」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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