The use of the “Bait Stick” technology in boll weevil control, prevention, suppression and eradication continues to make good progress and play an important role in 1.4 million acres of area-wide programs in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay.

The “Bait Stick” (known as the BWACT in the USA, the Tubo Mata Bicudo or TMB in Brazil and the Tubo Mata Picudo or TMP in Spanish speaking Latin America) has been successfully used by Paraguay for 5 years (in crop 2001/2002, about 500,000 ac.) and by Colombia for 2 years (in 2001/2002, about 100,000 ac.) in their National Cotton Reactivation Programs. In state programs of Alagoas, Ceará, Goias, Paraiba, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil (currently about 300,000 ac.), the TMB is being deployed as a strategic component to reactivate family farm cotton production. In IPM programs of Brazil, the TMB has been adopted as an effective, economical and environmentally friendly product in the states of Bahia, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso Sur, Minas Gerias, Parana and Sao Paulo in about 375,000 acres. For 7 years, the country of Argentina (in about 500,000 ac.) has successfully used pheromone traps and TMPs as part of their program to detect, eradicate and prevent the establishment of boll weevils in their major cotton zones. Currently, there is a strong desire on the part of the Argentines to collaborate on similar programs with Brazil in the States of Parana and Sao Paulo (about 150,000 ac.) and with Paraguay in its departments (same as states) of Neembucu, Misiones and Itapua (about 100,000 ac.). The Argentines (SENASA) wants to move the “line of defense” against the boll weevil further away from their cotton growing zones.

The “Bait Stick” or TMB/TMP results from the national and state (area-wide) programs in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Paraguay have been very promising. Where used correctly, boll weevil populations have been greatly reduced, seed cotton yields have been increased an average of 350 lbs. per acre and insecticide usage for boll weevil control has been reduced from an average of 7 per crop to less than 1. As a result, the incidence of mammalian poisoning, outbreaks of secondary pests and damage to beneficial insect populations has been drastically reduced. When used according to recommendations, the TMB/TMP programs have eliminated the economic damage from boll weevils at an approximate per acre cost of $8.80 per crop cycle and resulted in an average “cost to benefit” ratio of “$1 to $12”.

Results from the aforementioned programs are presented in Figure 1. Index terms: Anthonomus grandis, boll weevil eradication, BWACT, Grandlure.