The use of attract and control technologies in boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boh.) control, prevention, suppression and eradication has made substantial progress in area wide programs in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and the USA.

Early discoveries by scientists, as reported in the literature and a USDA-ARS monograph (Agriculture Handbook Number 589, Ridgeway et al., 1983), led to the isolation, identification and synthesis of Grandlure, an aggregation and sexual pheromone for both sexes of the boll weevil and the subsequent design and production of effective boll weevil traps. In the 1980s, the traps as designed by Dr. Dick Hardee and Dr. Bill Dickerson evolved into commercial production for use in early Boll Weevil Eradication Programs (BWEPs) in the Southeast USA and early IPM programs. Several years of wide-scale use demonstrated that the traps were more effective as detection and monitoring devices than as control devices and this lead to research, patent processing and development of the Boll Weevil Bait Stick (BWBS) by the USDA-ARS-Boll Weevil Research Laboratory.

Technology surrounding the bait stick, as patented by the USDA, was transferred as an exclusive license to Plato Industries, Inc. under the US Government’s Technology Transfer Act. During 1990 to 1995, the BWBS was modified, improved, evaluated in more than 200 IPM field tests in the USA and Latin America and commercially introduced as the Boll Weevil Attract and Control Tube (BWACT). The use of the BWACT or Tubo Mata Picudo (TMP) or Tubo Mata Bicudo (TMB) in Central and South America was heavily influenced by the impressive results of a two-year (1993/1995) area wide program in Nicaragua. Through collaboration with the USDA-ARS, State Extension Agencies and Latin America co-operators, the BWACT technology was implemented as a "preventative" approach against the boll weevil, the number one cotton pest in the Americas.

The BWACT has been adopted by Paraguay (in 300,000 ha./750,000 ac.) and Colombia (in 60,000 ha./150,000 ac.) in their National Cotton Reactivation Programs and in the state program of Ceará in the Northeast of Brazil (currently 100,000 ha./250,000 ac. but projected to become about 500,000 ha./1,250,000 ac. by 2003) as a strategic component to reactivate cotton production. In the IPM programs of Brazil (in 150,000 ha./375,000 ac.), the BWACT has been adopted and is widely used in commercial IPM programs as an effective, environmentally friendly product. The country of Argentina (in 50,000 ha./125,000 ac.) implemented in 1994 the use of traps and BWACTs to detect, eradicate and prevent the establishment of the boll weevil in their major cotton zones; whereas, Bolivia (in 20,000 ha./50,000 ac.) and the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso (in 240,000 ha./600,000 ac.) are in early stages with similar programs. In the USA, the BWACT and traps are approved for use in Boll Weevil Eradication Programs (6,000,000 ha./15,000,000 ac.) and IPM programs of each cotton producing state. Traps are deployed in programs as key components for boll weevil detection and "insecticide application decisions"; but, for various reasons as explained in this paper, the BWACT has only been used to a minor extent in the Mid-South and Southeast programs.

BWACT results from the national (area-wide) programs in Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia are exemplary of the potential for using attract & control technology; where used correctly, boll weevil populations have been greatly reduced, seed-cotton yields have been increased an average of 400 kgs. per ha. (350 lbs. per ac.) and insecticide usage for boll weevil control has been reduced from 6 to 8 applications per crop to less than 1. As a consequence, the incidence of mammalian poisoning, outbreaks of secondary pests and damage to beneficial insects has been drastically reduced.