When the cotton boll weevil crossed the Mexican border into Texas around 1892 andbegan a slow march across the Cotton Belt, many predicted that the pest would destroythe plantation South, whose economy and society rested on the production of cotton.As the pest began devouring the staple and moving through the region, land owners,tenants, politicians, and extension agents continued to paint the pest as a direct threatto their livelihoods. Despite the fear that gripped the South, by the time the weevil madeits way to the Atlantic Ocean, the pest had made no major, lasting effect on theeconomic, social, or environmental structures of the region. This dissertation examineshow individuals and communities in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, andGeorgia reacted to the arrival of the pest, and how in each place forces acted to use theboll weevil to advance their own purposes. Instead of blaming antiquated creditsystems, Jim Crow racial codes, and poor agricultural practices, contemporaries andscholars alike used the boll weevil as a material scapegoat for enduring poverty in therural South, as well as changes to the land and society that had little to do with thepests arrival.