A boll weevil is a small beetle, about a quarter-inch long, that became one of the most destructive pests in American history by attacking cotton plants. The beetle gets its name from the cotton boll, the round pod where cotton fibers grow. Female weevils lay their eggs inside these bolls, and when the larvae hatch, they eat the cotton from the inside out, destroying the crop before farmers can harvest it.

Boll weevils crossed into Texas from Mexico around 1892 and spread across the cotton-growing South over the next thirty years. They devastated the region's economy because cotton was the main cash crop for millions of farmers. By the 1920s, boll weevils were destroying millions of bales of cotton every year. Some farmers went bankrupt, while others were forced to switch to raising peanuts, soybeans, or livestock.

The town of Enterprise, Alabama, built a monument to the boll weevil in 1919, which might seem strange until you understand their reasoning: the beetle forced their farmers to diversify their crops, which ultimately made them more prosperous than relying on cotton alone. After decades of research and effort, American farmers finally eradicated the boll weevil from most of the United States by the 1990s, using careful monitoring and targeted pesticide programs.