The insulation offered by leaf litter, crop residues, and snow may enable the beetle to survive when air temperatures drop to these levels.

The weevil's natural predators include fire ants, other insects, spiders, birds, and a parasitoid wasp, Catolaccus grandis.

The insect crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas, to enter the United States from Mexico in 1892[2] and reached southeastern Alabama in 1909.

Since the boll weevil entered the United States, it has cost U.S. cotton producers about $13 billion, and in recent times about $300 million per year.

The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) has proposed a control program similar to that used in the U.S.[3] During early years of the weevil's presence, growers sought relatively warm soils and early-ripening cultivars.

[4] Methyl parathion, malathion, and pyrethroids were subsequently used, but environmental and resistance concerns arose as they had with DDT, and control strategies changed.

In the 1980s, entomologists at Texas A&M University pointed to the spread of another invasive pest, the red imported fire ant, as a factor in the weevils' population decline in some areas.

[5] Other avenues of control that have been explored include weevil-resistant strains of cotton,[6] the parasitoid wasp Catolaccus grandis,[7] the fungus Beauveria bassiana,[8] and the Chilo iridescent virus[citation needed].

These are based on cooperative effort by all growers together with the assistance of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

They find Calco Oil Red N-1700 to persist from larval feeding to adulthood, and for females to their eggs, although the resulting first instar was too faintly pink to be distinguishable.

"[15] A 2020 Journal of Economic History study found that the boll weevil spread between 1892 and 1922 had a beneficial impact on educational outcomes, as children were less likely to work on cultivating cotton.

[16] A 2020 NBER paper found that the boll weevil spread contributed to fewer lynchings, less Confederate monument construction, less KKK activity, and higher non-white voter registration.

The citizens of Enterprise, Alabama, erected the Boll Weevil Monument in 1919, perceiving that their economy had been overly dependent on cotton, and that mixed farming[18] and manufacturing were better alternatives.Music Sports Notes Further reading