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EUROPEAN CHAFER

The use of black light and lure traps, resulting from methods improvement work, provides more effective survey operations and have increased efficiency in discovering new areas of infestation. In June 1963, the first infestation of the pest in Pennsylvania was discovered at Erie. In addition, more than 179,000 additional acres were found infested for the first time-58 in Connecticut; 2,366 in New Jersey; and 176,689 in New York. Traps were operated in strategic locations in 15 additional States in an effort to detect promptly any new infestations.

All known infested areas in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are being treated. In New York, treatment has been limited to isolated areas of infestation and transportation facilities where the hazard of spreading infestation is great. To insure further against spread of the pest to uninfested areas, the regulated area was increased in New York and Connecticut. It is significant that all quarantine restrictions in the Capon Bridge area in West Virginia were lifted during the year as eradication treatments and subsequent surveys indicate that the State has been freed of the pest.

GYPSY MOTH

Treatment of gypsy moth under the cooperative Federal-State program during the 1963 season included work in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. A total of 134,000 acres were treated, including all known infestations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which involved 74,000 and 10,000, respectively. Peripheral infestations were treated in New York on 50,000 acres. No treatments were required in Michigan since there were no trap catches in that State in 1962. DDT was used where forage residues were not a problem, elsewhere Sevin was the material used.

States within the generally established area of infestation, where cooperative control treatments are not applied, have treated additional areas to protcet timber stand, nurseries, recreational areas, and scenic values along roadsides. In heavily infested portions of eastern New York, the State conservation department treated approximately 150,000 acres. The Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources treated 109,000 acres in Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire Counties; and the State of Rhode Island treated 835 miles of roadsides to prevent defoliation and more than 10 miles of stone walls around nurseries.

Method improvement work at Falmouth, Mass., included (1) extensive tests with several insecticides in different formulations showing promise; (2) release of gypsy moth parasites shipped from Spain in several test areas; and (3) release of irradiated male gypsy moths in test areas. New types of baffles for traps are being tested in an effort to eliminate the need for use of tanglefoot. Efforts were continued to improve the "gyplure" formulation so that it can be produced satisfactorily by industry.

JAPANESE BEETLE CONTROL

Results of the cooperative Federal-State program to eradicate a Japanese beetle outbreak in the Sacramento area of California reached an encouraging level during fiscal year 1963. The last specimen of the pest was collected in June 1962. A total of 14,511 acres has been treated since the beetle was first found there in June 1961.

To improve the effectiveness of the containment program against Japanese beetle, the States of Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, and South Carolina were added to those already under Federal quarantine in September 1962.

Those States with isolated infestations beyond the generally infested area undertook vigorous eradicative activities to eliminate all known infestations within their borders. During fiscal year 1963, these efforts resulted in the treatment of 85,600 acres in Michigan, 5,470 acres in Illinois, 14,421 acres in Tennessee, and 3,013 acres in Missouri.

Regulatory activities during the year required treatment of more than 3,345,800 lots of plant material and commodities, as well as 42.000 acres at airports and shipping points, to reduce or eliminate the hazard of spread. In this effort, a total of 87,000 acres of civil and military airport turfed areas has received permanent soil treatments to destroy beetle larvae and other soil insects.

To locate possible spread from the generally infested area, nearly 60.000 traps were operated in 36 States during the 1963 beetle flight season. Findings from these survey operations provided the basis for eradication treatments in periph

UNDER FEDERAL REGULATION

INFESTED

JAPANESE BEETLE

Prepared in Survey and Detection
Operations, PPC, ARS,USDA
October 31, 1963

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eral areas. No new long-distance spread of the pests was discovered in fiscal 1963. However, new infestations were discovered in some new areas outside but near the regulated area. Among the more important of these were those at Battle Creek, Mich., and Mattson and Charleston, Ill. Operations are underway on soil treatment of approximately 31,000 acres in the Battle Creek area and over 8,000 acres in the Illinois area. Plans have been made to treat other outlying, isolated infestations. In the Battle Creek operations a limited scale monitoring effort is included to measure the impact of the soil treatment work on nontarget organisms.

KHAPRA BEETLE ERADICATION

During fiscal year 1963, 31,057 properties were inspected in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and the Republic of Mexico, with only 17 found to be infested. All of the infested properties were in Arizona and this small flareup was traced to a single infested feed mill. All of the infestations have been treated.

No khapra beetles have been found in New Mexico since May 1959, in Texas since April 1960, and in Mexico since 1961. The last infestation discovered in California was in January 1962; the last in Arizona, July 1962. In December 1963, the Department announced that the khapra beetle the world's most destructive pest of stored grain products-has been eradicated from the United States and from Mexico.

Detection surveys for khapra beetle were conducted during fiscal 1963 on 33,799 properties in 37 States in the United States and 7 States in Mexico. Since the khapra beetle continues to be intercepted regularly at ports of entry, vigilant detection operations are being continued.

PINK BOLLWORM

Results of eradication efforts in the Arkansas-Louisiana area continued to be effective during the year ending June 30, 1963. During the 1962 season, only two specimens of pink bollworm larvae were recovered by gin trash inspection in Arkansas and one in Louisiana. One additional larva was found in Louisiana by lint cleaner inspection. As a result, 28 counties in Arkansas and 7 parishes in Louisiana were removed from quarantine regulation in January 1963. All or parts of eight counties in Arkansas remain regulated and six parishes in Louisiana.

The pink bollworm infestation found in Arizona in 1959 required the treatment of 75,000 acres that year. By 1962, the acreage requiring insecticide applications had decreased to 1,200 acres. Inspection during the 1962 cotton crop season revealed only one larva from the eradication area, and only 223 acres required treatment in 1963. The recently discovered pink bollworm lure was used experimently in the Arizona survey during the 1963 season. This new survey method offers much promise in improving surveys to detect the pest and to delimit known isolated infestations.

Even though the pink bollworm situation early in the 1963 crop season continued to look very encouraging, the influence of the dry winter of 1962 did not become apparent until late in the season. Surveys have shown pink bollworm populations increased substantially in Louisiana and Arkansas. In Louisiana, only 31 pink bollworms were found in 4 parishes during the entire 1962 season. By November 1963 pink bollworms have been discovered in 10 parishes; with nearly as many pink bollworms found in De Soto Parish alone as were found in the entire State last year. In Arkansas, only two pink bollworms were found in one county in 1962. As of November 1, 1963, inspections had discovered pink bollworms in 19 counties. Almost 200 pink bollworms have been found in gin trash this fall.

During mid-October 1963, 21 moths were captured in traps set around cotton planted near the Coolidge Airport in Pinal County, Arizona. A single moth was caught in the West Chandler Heights area in Maricopa County. Gin trash inspections thus far have shown larval finds from 19 fields in central Arizona, 11 of these in Pinal County and 8 in Maricopa County. There are more than 800 acres involved in the 19 fields where the pink bollworm had been found in gin trash. All of these infestations are in the central Arizona eradication area. In southeastern Arizona the pink bollworm had not heretofore caused serious losses. This season farmers have sustained serious loss indicating the need for an intensified program to reduce population if these farmers are to continue co tion production.

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Since 1953, the boll weevil has been a seriously limiting factor in cotton production in the Presidio Valley of Texas. It is believed that the weevil reached this area by migrating north along the Rio Conchos from central Mexico. The weevil appears to be a strain adapted to the hot, arid climate in the irrigated regions of the West and is a threat to the cotton-producing areas of western Texas, Arizona, California, and New Mexico.

Since 1961, cooperative efforts with Mexico have concentrated on the treatment of 2,400 acres of cotton along the 125-mile strip bordering the Rio Grande River in Mexico and Texas between Ruidosa and Fort Quitman. The area was treated successfully in 1961 and again in 1962. In addition, 193 acres were treated in the El Paso Valley in 1962 and approximately 2,600 acres in northern Sonora, Mexico, south of Nogales, Ariz. The program in the fall of 1963 will involve treatment of the same areas that were treated in the 1962 season. Both spring and fall treatments were applied at El Paso. During early spring of 1963, 457 acres were treated followed by treating 213 acres in the fall; from 3 to 5 applications were applied in all areas.

In view of the extensive cotton acreage at El Paso and its strategic location, treatments were applied in the spring of 1963 at two locations where weevils were found last year. During 1963 efforts were directed toward determining whether the infestation at El Paso is an established one or whether the boll weevil migrates to the area annually. Boll weevils were placed in hibernation cages in this area in October and November 1962 and none of the weevils survived in the cages. Weekly inspections were made in more than 70 cotton fields through mid-June 1963 in the El Paso area, and no infestations were found.

In addition, 60 fields were surveyed in Presidio County during the same period and 20 were found to be infested. Some of the untreated fields supported heavy populations. However, only light infestations were found where growers treated in this area last fall. Field survey operations will be continued throughout the season in order to provide more evidence concerning the problem. It appears that recent activities have provided an effective barrier zone to halt the spread of this destructive pest into the important cotton areas of the West. Close cooperative efforts will be required to maintain this protection on a continuing basis.

SWEETPOTATO WEEVIL CONTROL

Severe freezes in the winters of 1962 and 1963 destroyed wild host plant and sweetpotato crop refuse which enable the sweetpotato weevil to overwinter in

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