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
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Leather upper reinforcements.
Sole: Rubber shell Multi-cleated.
Shell stiched to upper for
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15% off all other
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Good through 2/28/85
Kacpa
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846-2771
113 College Main
(across from Kinkos)
TAMJ
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DAY
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Conre ■find outaboaf fnfernahona) opporfanlfies
today fmuNfojwmw the wm*
TSr mere info:
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„ 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
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Rep. Smii
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anted to
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After voic
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ortheast T
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“It will di
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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.