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34-569: The Monument consists of a statue of a woman holding a pedestal with a boll weevil perched on top. The boll weevil ( Anthonomus grandis ), sometimes referred to as the "Mexican cotton boll weevil" was indigenous to Mexico , but appeared in Alabama in 1915. By 1918 farmers were losing whole crops of cotton . H. M. Sessions saw this as an opportunity to convert the area to peanut farming. In 1916 he convinced C. W. Baston, an indebted farmer, to back his venture. The first crop paid off their debts and

68-577: A barrier to the insect's further spread, until it was detected in Brazil in 1983. An estimated 90% of the cotton farms in Brazil are now infested. During the 1990s, the weevil spread to Paraguay and Argentina . The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) has proposed a control program similar to that used in the U.S. During early years of the weevil's presence, growers sought relatively warm soils and early-ripening cultivars. Following World War II,

102-608: A few hundred feet away at 106 Railroad Street. In 2019, following the 100th anniversary of the monument, it was moved to the Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society's Gift Shop. A nearby security camera monitors the monument for further vandalism. In recent memory, dish soap has been poured into the monument fountain resulting in mounds of suds in and around the monument area. [REDACTED] Media related to Boll Weevil Monument at Wikimedia Commons Boll weevil The boll weevil ( Anthonomus grandis )

136-462: A functional ovipositor. Fig wasp ovipositors have specialized serrated teeth to penetrate fruits, but gall wasps have either uniform teeth or no teeth on their ovipositors, meaning the morphology of the organ is related to the life history. Members of the Dipteran (fly) families Tephritidae and Pyrgotidae have well-developed ovipositors that are partly retracted when not in use, with

170-639: A parasitoid wasp, Catolaccus grandis . The weevils sometimes emerge from diapause before cotton buds are available. The insect crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas , to enter the United States from Mexico in 1892 and reached southeastern Alabama in 1909. By the mid-1920s, it had entered all cotton-growing regions in the U.S., traveling 40 to 160 miles per year. It remains the most destructive cotton pest in North America. Since

204-578: Is a species of beetle in the family Curculionidae . The boll weevil feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central Mexico, it migrated into the United States from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all U.S. cotton-growing areas by the 1920s, devastating the industry and the people working in the American South. During the late 20th century, it became a serious pest in South America as well. Since 1978,

238-482: Is a piercing organ as well. Some ovipositors only retract partly when not in use, and the basal part that sticks out is known as the scape , or more specifically oviscape , the word scape deriving from the Latin word scāpus , meaning "stalk" or "shaft". Grasshoppers use their ovipositors to force a burrow into the earth to receive the eggs. Cicadas pierce the wood of twigs with their ovipositors to insert

272-410: Is time to release the fry into a suitable situation in the open water. The marbled newt , or Triturus marmoratus, females participate in parental investment by ovipositing their eggs. They carefully wrap them in aquatic leaves as a form of protection, scattering them throughout a pond to avoid predation. Females are not able to breathe during the oviposition process; therefore, the benefit to wrapping

306-645: The Boll Weevil Eradication Program in the U.S. allowed full-scale cultivation to resume in many regions. The adult insect has a long snout , a grayish color, and is usually less than 6 mm ( 1 ⁄ 4  in) in length. Adult weevils overwinter in well-drained areas in or near cotton fields, and farms after diapause . They emerge and enter cotton fields from early spring through midsummer, with peak emergence in late spring, and feed on immature cotton bolls. The boll weevil lays its eggs inside buds and ripening bolls (fruits) of

340-597: The Great Migration of the time, although not the only one. Thereby it was one of the factors in the birth of the Harlem Renaissance - including the culture of the Cotton Club . A 2009 study found "that as the weevil traversed the American South [in the period 1892-1932], it seriously disrupted local economies, significantly reduced the value of land (at this time still the most important asset in

374-472: The University of Missouri indicates they cannot survive more than an hour at −15 °C (5 °F). The insulation offered by leaf litter , crop residues, and snow may enable the beetle to survive when air temperatures drop to these levels. Other limitations on boll weevil populations include extreme heat and drought. The weevil's natural predators include fire ants , other insects, spiders, birds, and

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408-472: The screwworm program of the 1950s are among the biggest and most successful insect control programs in history. The Library of Congress American Memory Project contains a number of oral history materials on the boll weevil's impact. It devastated black Americans disproportionately because most were directly financially dependent on cotton as a cash crop. Because they were more likely to labor as tenant farmers or sharecroppers on cotton plantations in

442-639: The American South), and triggered substantial intraregional population movements." 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. 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 boll weevil infestation has been credited with bringing about economic diversification in

476-575: The Southern US, including the expansion of peanut cropping. 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 and manufacturing were better alternatives. Music Sports Notes Further reading Oviposition The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals , especially insects , for

510-624: The Southern United States - the epicenter of the Boll Weevil infestation, black farmers, suffered disproportionately. Additionally, Government intervention such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 , resulted in the abandonment and loss of cropland for black farmers. By 1922 it was taking 8% of the cotton in the country annually. This failure of the south's primary crop became a major impetus for

544-438: The boll weevil entered the United States, insecticides have always remained the main control methods. 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. Other avenues of control that have been explored include weevil-resistant strains of cotton, the parasitoid wasp Catolaccus grandis ,

578-536: 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 boll weevil contributed to Southern farmers' economic woes during the 1920s, a situation exacerbated by the Great Depression in the 1930s. The boll weevil appeared in Venezuela in 1949 and Colombia in 1950. The Amazon Rainforest was thought to present

612-401: The center of a fountain, which is surrounded by a wrought-iron railing. The monument stands more than 13 feet (4.0 m) tall. At the base of the monument appears the following inscription: "In profound appreciation of the Boll Weevil and what it has done as the herald of prosperity this monument was erected by the citizens of Enterprise, Coffee County, Alabama." The original statue of

646-557: The cotton plants. The female can lay up to 200 eggs over a 10- to 12-day period. The oviposition leaves wounds on the exterior of the flower bud. The eggs hatch in 3 to 5 days within the cotton squares (larger buds before flowering), feed for 8 to 10 days, and then pupate . The pupal stage lasts another 5 to 7 days. The lifecycle from egg to adult spans about three weeks during the summer. Under optimal conditions, 8 to 10 generations per season may occur. Boll weevils begin to die at temperatures at or below −5 °C (23 °F). Research at

680-453: The development of new pesticides such as DDT enabled U.S. farmers again to grow cotton as an economic crop. DDT was initially extremely effective, but U.S. weevil populations developed resistance by the mid-1950s. Methyl parathion , malathion , and pyrethroids were subsequently used, but environmental and resistance concerns arose as they had with DDT, and control strategies changed. While many control methods have been investigated since

714-428: The eggs. Sawflies slit the tissues of plants by means of the ovipositor and so do some species of long-horned grasshoppers . In the ichneumon wasp genus Megarhyssa , the females have a slender ovipositor (terebra) several inches long that is used to drill into the wood of tree trunks . These wasps are parasitic in the larval stage on the larvae of horntail wasps, hence the egg must be deposited directly into

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748-509: The exception of Texas, and most of this state is free of boll weevils. Problems along the southern border with Mexico have delayed eradication in the extreme southern portions of this state. Follow-up programs are in place in all cotton-growing states to prevent the reintroduction of the pest. These monitoring programs rely on pheromone-baited traps for detection. The boll weevil eradication program, although slow and costly, has paid off for cotton growers in reduced pesticide costs. This program and

782-480: The face of adversity, the monument was dedicated on December 11, 1919, at the intersection of College and Main Street, the heart of the town's business district. The monument depicts a female figure in a flowing gown with arms stretched above her head. She raises high a trophy topped by an enlarged-scale boll weevil. The statue stands atop an ornately detailed base which supports two round streetlamps. The base stands in

816-621: The feasibility of eradication. Based on the success of this test, area-wide programs were begun in the 1980s to eradicate the insect from whole regions. 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). Research methods were developed. The ability to distinguish between individuals which had eaten certain substances and those which had not

850-507: The fungus Beauveria bassiana , and the Chilo iridescent virus . Genetically engineered Bt cotton is not protected from the boll weevil. Although it was possible to control the boll weevil, the necessary insecticide was costly. The goal of many cotton entomologists was to eventually eradicate the pest from U.S. cotton. In 1978, a large-scale test was begun in eastern North Carolina and in adjacent Southampton County, Virginia, to determine

884-479: The host's body as it is feeding. The ovipositors of Megarhyssa are among the longest egg-laying organs (relative to body size) known. The stingers of the Aculeata (wasps, hornets, bees, and ants) are ovipositors, highly modified and with associated venom glands . They are used to paralyze prey, or as defensive weapons. The penetrating sting plus venom allows the wasp to lay eggs with less risk of injury from

918-461: The host. In some cases, the injection also introduces virus particles that suppress the host's immune system and prevent it from destroying the eggs. However, in virtually all stinging Hymenoptera , the ovipositor is no longer used for egg-laying. An exception is the family Chrysididae , members of the Hymenoptera, in which species such as Chrysis ignita have reduced stinging apparatus and

952-452: The laying of eggs . In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typically its form is adapted to functions such as preparing a place for the egg, transmitting the egg, and then placing it properly. For most insects, the organ is used merely to attach the egg to some surface, but for many parasitic species (primarily in wasps and other Hymenoptera ), it

986-553: The part that sticks out being the oviscape. Oestridae , another family within Diptera, often have short hairy ovipositors, the species Cuterebra fontinella has one of the shortest within the family. Ovipositors exist not only in winged insects , but also in Apterygota , where the ovipositor has an additional function in gathering the spermatophore during mating. Little is known about the egg-laying habits of these insects in

1020-401: The wild. Female bitterlings in the genus Rhodeus have an ovipositor in the form of a tubular extension of the genital orifice. During breeding season, they use it when depositing eggs in the mantle cavity of freshwater mussels , where their eggs develop in reasonable security. Seahorses have an ovipositor for introducing eggs into the brood pouch of the male, who carries them until it

1054-537: The woman, excluding the fountain and boll weevil, was built in Italy for approximately $ 1,800. The boll weevil was not added until thirty years later, when Luther Baker thought the Boll Weevil Monument should have a boll weevil on it. He made the boll weevil and mounted it atop the statue. The boll weevil, and sometimes even the entire monument, has been repeatedly stolen throughout the years. Each time it

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1088-421: Was bought by farmers seeking to change to peanut farming. Cotton was grown again, but farmers learned to diversify their crops, a practice which brought new money to Coffee County . Bon Fleming, a local businessman, came up with the idea to build a statue and helped to finance the cost. As a tribute to how something disastrous can be a catalyst for change, and a reminder of how the people of Enterprise adjusted in

1122-426: Was found and repaired by the city of Enterprise until July 11, 1998. On that day vandals ripped the boll weevil out of the statue's hands and permanently damaged the statue. City leaders were going to repair the original statue and put it back, but it proved too difficult and costly. A polymer-resin replica was erected in its place in downtown Enterprise in 1998. The original was on display at Enterprise's Depot Museum,

1156-426: Was needed, to determine effectiveness of the active ingredients used. Lindig et al. 1980 studied several dietary dyes as markers. 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. The program has been successful in eradicating boll weevils from all cotton-growing states with

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