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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1985)
Take Your Valentine to Dinner Steak Dinner for Two $15 00 fORX 4 n Page 4/The Battalion/Wednesday, February 13,1985 - — — Ill 22 ozs. of steak, salad bar, homemade rolls, choice of baked potato, french fries or rice February 14 5-10 pm 4 i ShiLoti STEAKHOUSE DUSE i — 4a— Texas Ave between Southwest Pkwy & Kmart 2528 Texas Ave S. College Station, Tx. 693-1164 - p P O O B o: MARCH 2.1985 SOFTBALL SPECIAL Ifck A <^as *17.95 Leather upper reinforcements. Sole: Rubber shell Multi-cleated. Shell stiched to upper for durability. RUI •RONTSWKAR Rccbok $‘7'c6up6N‘r$ 15% off all other merchandise Good through 2/28/85 Kacpa Northgate Athletic 846-2771 113 College Main (across from Kinkos) TAMJ OVERSEAS DAY fek H* llaer^MSC Louise Conre ■find outaboaf fnfernahona) opporfanlfies today fmuNfojwmw the wm* TSr mere info: Shuhy Abroad Office, lot /icademic Bkia- MSOZHH „ MSC Travel S+udewf fVtgrams Office. Entomologists working-ioi to combat the mosquihe' By KATIE DICKIE Reporter A Texas A&M entomologist is combining the expertise of entomo logists, ecologists, aerospace engi neers and Mother Nature to fignt mosquitoes. Jim Olson heads up a program at tempting to combat mosquitoes in rice-producing areas. The team is made up of entomologists, ecolog ists, behaviorists and engineers from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and California. More than half of the 160 mos quito varieties can be found in Texas. Olson is studying the Psoro- phora columbiae and Culex salina- rius types. Though the columbiae variety has been linked in cattle deaths, the sali- narius type is mainly an annoyance, Olson said. Texas’ mosquito problem lies mainly in the coastal, rice-producing regions. The rice fields have been esti mated to be the home of 500,000 mosquito larvae per acre. Though mosquitoes are physically small, their large numbers cause a big problem, Olson said. A female mosquito can ingest about five times her body weight in blood. After a blood meal she lays about 120 to 160 eggs. “Our goal is to develop the most accurate survey techniques and fore casting models to predict what our enemy is doing out there,” Olsen said, “or simply a system of strategies that are going to suppress these pop ulations to levels that can be toler ated by humans.” Olson said these tolerance levels vary. “Right now 12 bites a night make people say mosquitoes are bad down there,” Olson said, but human atti tudes toward the annoyance change. “The freer the environment is of mosquitoes, the less tolerant they (area residents) are of a few,” he said. The research team hopes to lower the number to the level of two or three bites per night. Olson said the team’s major con cern is to ensure that anything it uses to eradicate the mosquitoes will not adversely affect nature. “Nature is already doing one whale of a job out there in control ling mosquitoes,” he said. It is estimated that only 25 per cent of all mosquitoes hatched ever get to the adult stage. Predatory beetles, backswimmers and mosquito-eating fish help con trol the pests. Physical factors such as tempera ture or even methods of irrigation may affect the lifespan of a mos quito, Olson said. “The higher the temperature, the faster they grow; the cooler theTem- perature, the slower they grow,” he said. “But they are still growing, they’re just waiting for a little warmer temperature.” Mosquito eggs survive winter. Early attempts to control the mos quito problem proved too expensive or failed to take care of the dormant winter egg problem. But ten years ago a bacterium was AUSTIN 'uesday ap| enate a p mendment BOO million nbitious sta The Hou roved legisl lent the pi nendment mber. e votes ively littl brthea _ioned tl £ did not 1 atei from exas Rep. Smii iked bill ackage inc iCp. Chip : MBit did i pivinced. East Tex; anted to elped kill p After voic oor, Gilley ■e trying tc atei much > I have a f ill be nu ortheast T ie richest 1 :ates. “It will di will ultima ansported Photo by ELIZABETH LR 6 ^ i Texas A&M entomologist Jim Olson examines mosquk which are enclosed in a cold air environment. discovered in Israel which was the answer to all the environmental problems. Bracillus thuringiensis is- raelensis is a toxin that is only harm ful to aquatic fly larvae. Mosquitoes are stricken with a fa tal case of diarrhea after ingestion of the BTI toxin. “It blows their guts apart," Olson said. Until this past summer, the appli cation of the BTI was too expensive to use commercially. The process cost $5 to $7 per acre and had to be applied several times to get rid of the mosquito larvae. Modifications in the application methods by Olson and a group of engineers have dropped the applica tion costs to a base cost of $ 1,800 and 23 to 40 cents per acre. The application involves spraying an infested area with BTI. Olson said any spray plane can be utilized. The project engineers developed a portaole system that whips the BTI out over the rice fields. The team plans to initiate the BTI process in Arkansas this summer. In Texas, a more limited attempt will be introduced in Chambers Coi on the coast. Olson said the ideal time to con centrate the application is at the lar val stage. 5-y By AN xmnty “The main objective is to si before they get to town,”hes; The mosquitoes are easier!! trol while they are swarming!/ said male mosquitoes swanmflj 300-foot columns are noi The Men mon. A plane developed by tiiiuncil has neers will help them stuc in to give i swarms by flying through tla MSC. different levels and capturinilncluded plings. oposals to ange its cu Olson and his army ofcofcCory Cor are studying where and ntesident f( mosquitoes are concentrated tasizes the spot treatment will eradic4gp r ocess many as possible through snii. , ‘Planning plications of the BTI toxin, m, but the In the fall, the team wants ally proud icate most of the population icorporate the wintering eggs. This eorganiza crease both the number oi Currently going into winter and the tsoffour; population. !, entertah “The major emphasis is t Long ran do as complete a job as possttiig more late fall and early spring, msion of t said. ireeffecti “If this works, particularly Nations eff Psorophora columbiae, were. With incr to put a heck of a dentin; unity awa mosquito problem that occurs th better q rice-producing area. It should' Courtney but hugs just don’t read the e plan is it: books I do.” “It’s not s t’s made tc Population figures indicafe B-CS’s ‘metropolitanizatio The plan » allow ne om to de By ROD RICHARDSON Reporter The latest census figures reveal 1 § u Bryan-College Station nas become one of the fastest growing areas in the United States. Robert Cornish, associate profes sor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Texas A&M, agrees. The 1980 Census of Population and Housing shows a 61 percent population increase in Brazos County which translates into about 36,200 more people in the area since 1970. Cornish says these growing pop ulation figures represent an essential phase of “metropolitanization” which occurs when large numbers of people move into an area and begin looking for more and better enter tainment and service facilities. Cornish says once basic services such as adequate sewage treatment, road repair, and public transporta tion are provided for, then attention can be focused on fine arts and en tertainment. Dr. Donald Sweeney, interim head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, says A&M has a significant role in the overall development of the region. The University has started to g lace more emphasis on research, weeney says, and that emphasis has or led to an increase in the nuiii®K * graduate students living in H College Station. B ^ “Graduate students art l houst likely to play active roles in spent $: munity, since they often lnc e ach out ; with their spouses and clnltf^rs froi Sweeney said. lUt the rei Cornish says the size and (Most vac; of the student population ali au se there attractive to businesses and $ Cky offi tries. Bling, a However, he says poP t:U F e of g[ a growth in this region wulWPy occup because of reduced operation! ae earliest oil industry and University ^er d e p. designed to limit undergraduate to wo* rollment. The nei tie of a Gramm predicts political conversions sed If* sqi Associated Press AUSTIN — Sen. Phil Gramm, calling 1984’s sweeping Republican victories “a political earthquake,” predicted Tuesday many Texas Democratic officeholders soon will be switching parties. “I intend to work to encourage conservative Democrats who share our values — and who are in a party that does not share theirs — to come over and join our party and to help us become the new majority party in Texas,” Gramm said. Speaking to the Travis County Republican Party, Gramm poked fun at Democratic Gov. Mark White’s failure to convince three Dallas County Democratic judges from switching parties last week. “Our governor, hearing of their possible change, summoned the judges to Austin to tell them they ought to stay in the Democratic Party because he was going to be at the head of the ticket in 1986.” Gramm said. “They joined the ranks of the largest and fastest-growing el ement of the Texas Democratic Party — former Democrats. “Those three judges are the tip of the iceberg. We’re going to see many elected officials that currently hold office in the Democratic Party come over to the Republican side.” Two years to the day after he won election to the House as a newly con verted Republican, Gramm said the GOP now stands closer to the aver age Texan than does his old party. Last year’s victory “occurre* cause we gave a positive progtf the people of Texas, oecaui' gave them candidates who i* their philosophy and their valt he said. Gramm said a key reason fe new Republican popularity is r" dent Reagan’s economic pi The combination of tax cuts am its on government spendini creases is exactly what vw wanted, he said. He said the Reagan policies' overhauled the nation’s political logue, and he noted House Ma; Leader Jim Wright, D-Texas Monday traveled to Austin io : pose his own spending freer deficit reduction plans.