Insect Monument of Alabama

Boll Weevil  Monument Of Alabama

Insects are most fascinating part of nature. Apart from the beneficial part of the insects such as pollination, honey production by honey bee and maintaining the ecological balance in both terrestrial and aquatic eco-system, insects also act as pest of crops, domestic animals and human beings. We might have heard about the establishment of the monument for famous personality or divine objects, but a monument was erected in remembrance of destructive agricultural pest in Alabama, a constituent state of the United States of America.

Boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) is a most destructive pest of cotton, infesting and destroying the cotton crop all over the world. In the early 19th century, cotton was the major commercial crop grown especially for its lint in the states of America. The boll weevil entered America from Mexico in 1892. Cotton cultivation and marketing of lint was considered to be the major source of income and economic growth in America during that time. The weevils infest and feeds on cotton flowers and buds. The adult weevil is also capable of overwinter adverse environmental condition and infect the crop in the upcoming season. This weevil causes severe economic woes to farmers in America in 1920s (Cost nearly 13 billion dollars for management), which was also a reason for a great depression in America in the late 1930s . This weevil infestation resulted in nearly 70% reduction in cotton cultivation between 1914 -1917. Farmers of Alabama were also not exception so the farmers planned a shift in cultivation from cotton to other crop for there livelihood. In 1915, Pittman and H.M. Sessions advised the farmers in Alabama to shift cotton cultivation to peanuts.

In 1917, Alabama produced more than one million bushels of peanuts that sold for more than $5 million. By 1919, it was the largest peanut producing county in the United States. This shift in the cultivation resulted in change of economy of the farmers in Alabama. The farmers felt lucky and they decided to establish a monument to remember this event (boll weevil). In 1919, Roscoe Bon Fleming  (a merchant) build a monument to the boll weevil in honor of what the weevil had done for diversification and the economy of Alabama. The Boll weevil monument is the only monument erected to honor an agricultural pest.