The boll weevil [BW; Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)] is the main pest in the cotton-producing regions throughout the Americas from Southern Texas to Argentina. In the Colombian Caribbean, frequent population outbreaks have resulted in cotton planting bans in some localities and in massive applications of insecticides elsewhere (up to 15 insecticide sprays per cotton season). To date, information on boll weevil management strategies in Colombia is only available in the forms of gray literature (technical reports) and informal knowledge held by crop advisors and farmers. This study compiles this information using a standardized protocol for participatory construction of conceptual models for agricultural systems. The conceptual model developed in this study integrates the informal local knowledge of crop advisors and farmers with disciplinary knowledge describing management strategies for boll weevil. The collected data were assessed and organized using a systems approach to facilitate the future development of quantitative models and allow visualization of knowledge gaps. The model includes the description of the biological and technical-decisional subsystems. The latter subsystem explains boll weevil management at two temporal-spatial scales: 1) farm (field) scale management during the cotton season and 2) a regional boll weevil suppression strategy mainly aimed at controlling the insect populations that survived the intercotton season. The development of this conceptual model allowed describing the current management strategies for boll weevil and formulating hypotheses about the effectiveness of these strategies. This conceptual model provides guidelines for future research, and it can serve as a baseline for the development of quantitative models and simulations describing the decision-making process related to the management of boll weevil in the Colombian Caribbean.

中文翻译：

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哥伦比亚加勒比地区棉铃象鼻虫（鞘翅目：Curculionidae）的管理：一个概念模型

棉铃象鼻虫 [BW; Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)] 是从德克萨斯州南部到阿根廷的整个美洲棉花产区的主要害虫。在哥伦比亚加勒比地区，频繁的人口爆发导致一些地方禁止种植棉花，并在其他地方大量使用杀虫剂（每个棉花季节最多喷洒 15 次杀虫剂喷雾剂）。迄今为止，有关哥伦比亚棉铃象鼻虫管理策略的信息仅以灰色文献（技术报告）和作物顾问和农民持有的非正式知识的形式提供。本研究使用用于参与式构建农业系统概念模型的标准化协议汇编了这些信息。本研究中开发的概念模型将作物顾问和农民的非正式当地知识与描述棉铃象鼻虫管理策略的学科知识相结合。使用系统方法对收集的数据进行评估和组织，以促进定量模型的未来发展并允许知识差距的可视化。该模型包括对生物和技术决策子系统的描述。后一个子系统在两个时空尺度上解释了棉铃象鼻虫管理：1) 棉花季节期间的农场（田间）规模管理和 2) 区域棉铃象鼻虫抑制策略，主要旨在控制在棉间季节幸存下来的昆虫种群。该概念模型的开发允许描述当前的棉铃象鼻虫管理策略并制定有关这些策略有效性的假设。这个概念模型为未来的研究提供了指导，它可以作为开发定量模型和模拟的基准，描述与哥伦比亚加勒比地区棉铃象鼻虫管理相关的决策过程。