The methods of the boll weevil control in Paraguay have been substantially improved since development of a technological package that is more adapted to the biology and environment of the pest. In Latin American countries, USA types of IPM and eradication programs are very difficult to implement and a better way to control the boll weevils is to prevent economically damaging populations during the first 100 days of the crop. The conventional control, approach of repeated applications of insecticides has a high, unacceptable economic and ecological cost for the production systems of most Latin American countries.

In Paraguay studies were conducted with the Boll Weevil Attract & Control Tube (BWACT) as an alternative program to prevent economically damaging populations; the approach was to suppress the over all population at planting time and during the post-harvest. This paper presents results from field research that were used to further design the operating parameters of a National Boll Weevil Suppression Program.

The field results confirmed that:

• Recently manufactured BWACTs and BWACTs carried over from the previous year have similar efficacy and provide acceptable control for 6+ weeks.
• BWACTs positioned in the field border nearest the "down wind" overwintering sites attract 48% more weevils than other "down wind" positions.
• BWACT installations at stalk destruction instead of those at 50% boll opening remove the most weevils from the environment, thus providing a greater reduction of the overwintering population.