PERSPECTIVES (7/6)

Boll Weevils: Nature's terrorists

West Texas bureau chief Justin Featherston illustrates the parallels between the global War on Terror and his battles with the elusive Boll Weevil in the cotton fields of America's heartland



by Justin Featherston

This weekend, as I heard countless people mention freedom and fighting for freedom, a sudden epiphany came to me--the war being fought against terrorism is almost synonymous with my fight against the boll weevil, Anthonomous grandis.

I am a Field Technician (trapper) for the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation who puts boll weevil traps around cotton fields to determine whether fields need to be sprayed with insecticide. Let me explain the similarities.

Terrorists try to cripple our economic system in any way they can through attacks that change our market systems. Boll weevils work from inside the United States trying to destroy part of our agricultural crop--cotton. If they succeed, the U.S. will rely more and more on foreign cotton which would cripple our infrastructure little by little. Devious little creatures, aren't they?

Next, troops use "cave-buster" bombs to draw terrorists out of caves in Afghanistan and then bomb them. At my job, trappers use traps to lure boll weevils and then we "bomb" the fields with insecticide.

Nowadays, it seems many Americans aren't satisfied with the War on Terror in Iraq and believe that the initial war in Afghanistan was all that was needed. Americans openly express their dissenting opinions about the current war in Iraq. Similarly, farmers explicitly tell trappers that the program to eradicate the boll weevil is unnecessary simply because the first few years eliminated most of the weevils in my area.

Finally, and most disturbingly, both terrorists and boll weevils will commit suicide to accomplish their goal. What immediately comes to mind when the word "terrorists" is uttered is the 9/11 attacks and suicide bombers. But, did you know that there are "suicide weevils" as well? These weevils come out of their hibernation cycle too early in the cotton stage to have any food to eat and therefore, die. Some might say this has no relation to the terrorist suicides, but the fact is that the boll weevils are testing the cotton to see how fast they can destroy the crop after it has been planted.

In summary, there are many more analogous actions taken by terrorists and boll weevils than these mentioned. Since there are many similarities, maybe the United States should use tactics that we trappers employ to catch terrorists. Also, the time has come for every man, woman, and child to help with the fight against boll weevils by killing all insects that have snouts or odd antennae. In time, perhaps we can defeat the weevil, and its cousin--the terrorist.

Featherston is the West Texas bureau chief for The Bastion and a business management undergraduate at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He is also employed by the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation where he traps the ravenous boll weevil and protects cotton on the West Texas Plains.

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On the Web:

Information on the boll weevil from the Wikipedia Encyclopedia

The Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation