Friday, September 18,1987/The Battalion/Page 7
. A&M research focuses
bn controlling fire ants
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By Leslie Guy
Reporter
A Texas A&M program is work
ing on solving a problem that has be
come more than just pesty.
The imported fire-ant program,
: headed by Dr. Brad Vinson, is a
long-term research project aimed at
studying and controlling fire ants.
“They (fire ants) have taken over
5razos County,” Vinson said.
[There are 300 to 400 multiple-
ijueen mounds per acre where there
ased to be 40 or 50 single-queen
lounds.”
The ants moved into this area in
[he mid-1970s and lived in single
queen colonies, Vinson said. How
ever, about five years later, research-
prs discovered multiple-queen colo-
lies. These often have a hundred
queens who lay eggs, produce work
ers and build many mounds, he said.
The fire ants replaced about 12
[pedes of ants in Texas when they
pame to the state.
Since the ants intermingle and
jnove around, they are difficult to
[real, he said. One treatment, Mirex,
iad worked, but was canceled in
^ 1978 for environmental reasons.
fNow researchers believe it may have
/ nQn Ppf Contributed to the spreading of the
r v-*M UUI^Bire ants
I “Using pesticides is a temporary
I T ■"Solution and I don’t see this chang
ing-” Vinson said. “We are searching
L | c<...,kzzi:'j | or a novel approach to control the
|>roblem.”
These ants eat other harmful in-
iec t S) so wiping them out completely
vould be too drastic and would only
:reate ot her problems, Vinson said.
”0 decrease the severity of the ex-
Jermination, researchers must deter-
ine how to manage the multiple-
nd single-c^ueen colonies. Methods
k I ised to eliminate multiple-queen col-
1/. L mies kill most single-queen colonies,
' 10 the problem is not solved, Vinson
;aid.
The researchers are also studying
She possibility of genetically control
ling the ant population. Sterile males
have been found in multiple-queen
colonies and if they can find a bad
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irate
gene, the researchers feel that they
could possibly come closer to solving
the problem.
“We have to have a lot of patience
and be hopeful that something will
come out,” Vinson said.
Even though he enjoys studying
ants, Vinson would like to get rid of
“Using pesticides is a tem
porary solution and I
don’t see this chang
ing. We are searching for a
novel approach to control
the problem. ”
— Dr. Brad Vinson, head
of the fire-ant project
the fire ants if he could and let the
ones native to the region return.
“I like the native ants and insects,”
he said. “The fire ants make the en
vironment more simple by killing a
lot of these native insects.”
The program, which began in
1973, also is examining the spread of
fire ants around the country and the
impact they have on the environ
ment and the effects destroying the
ants would have.
Supported by the state and fed
eral governments and private orga
nizations, researchers nave studied
the fire-ant problem extensively and
developed Pro-Drone, a type of bait
applied to individual ant mounds,
Vinson said. However, he foresees
no federal program that will elimi
nate the problem.
The researchers are looking at
methods other than pesticides to
control the growing number of im
ported fire ants in the United States.
The red imported fire ants were
probably brought to the United
States from southern Brazil aboard
cargo ships in the 1930s. From there
they spread to the other southern
states.
The imported fire-ant program
also examines the spread of ants. Re
searchers believe the ants were in
sod which was sold to other parts of
the southern United States. In the
1950s the federal government tried
to control the shipment of sod to
lessen the problem.
Vinson said now the fire ants
spread primarily in mating flights.
They mate in the air and the queen
lands to begin a new colony, he said.
Researchers also study the effects
of fire ants on society. Vinson said
single-queen colonies pose little
threat because they are less aggres
sive, do not sting and stay away from
people.
“You don’t know they are out
there; they run the other way,” he
said.
On the other hand, multiple-
queen colonies are harmful and “one
sting could lead to death for some
people,” he said. People react differ
ently, but almost everyone who is
stung gets pustules, which easily be
come infected, he said.
Vinson said fire ants also affect
tourism in Texas. “People don’t
want to go to the national parks and
get stung,” he said. The ants detet
outdoor activities and have a big im
pact on people’s lives, he said.
“Rather than us dictating an>
they dictate us,” he said. “This ha^
big impact.”
Vinson said searching for an <0-
logically sound approach that is /ri
de on the environment is ancfier
area the program covers. Theyook
at the ants’ impact on the enroll
ment and the environment’s jipact
on ants, he said.
The imported fire-ant pro- am is
led by Vinson, but research* done
by students and people witHoctor-
ates, he said.
To aid researchers in tudying
ants, the imported fire-anprogram
has a lab on campus withiundreds
of colonies. The ants ab can be
found on plots of land o the A&M
farm, he said.
The researchers are or king dil
igently to control fire a- s in Texas,
which Vinson said is “ftee deep in
ants.”
earet
Program attempts to hep
children deal with cancer
■Feelings of guilt plague siblings of patients
e thefts showed this'
4 all categories, aft 1
■ 55.544 in the firs!'
) ,671 this year,
n ests also were upl
lonth period, sM|
;nt increase to 32,:'l
i/thm IwesatJ 7 D U ALL ^ S ( ^ P) — Ni ne-year-old
action during^ Zachary Brooks was finishing a bag
id “Duty-related _ potato chips at Children s Medical
ponsible for tw
officers.” Assaultss
>ed 3.4 percent,teas 1
ssett said.
College Station.
.45
08
li a
P
■TORE HOURS:
-un-Thurs: llam-to
Fri-Sat: llam-2aiti
S00 Harvey Rd.
■64-666(1
tenter, saying that he feels guilty
at his 4-year-old sister has cancer.
tl’She got it in my room,” he says se-
' , as if admitting to a crime.
1 “I was in there playing with some
Styrofoam and she wanted to play
with it too,” he recalls. “I broke her
Off a piece and let her play with it.
She put the Styrofoam in her nose.”
Shortly after that, his sister Sara,
who at the time was 2 years old, was
( diagnosed with cancer of the muscle
around one eye.
His parents and social workers at
the hospital repeatedly have told
Brooks he didn’t cause his sister’s ill
ness. They’ve told him that child
hood cancer sometimes just happens
and that no one knows why. Brooks
still thinks he was responsible.
Brooks was one of 16 children
who visited Children’s Medical Cen
ter recently as part of a new pro-
grarn for siblings of cancer patients.
The program’s aim is to help chil
dren deal with having a brother or
sister battling cancer.
I Too often, experts say, siblings
are overlooked. Everyone focuses on
|he ill child and the parents. All the
ilblings may see is that their parents
ate tired and troubled, spending
more time at the hospital than any
where else. And they watch their
irother or sister lie in a hospital bed
ceiving chemotherapy.
The siblings may feel confused,
ightened and alone. They discover
at there are other children who
are those emotions.
Hospital employees who work
ifith cancer patients and their fami-
s started the program by asking
e children to fill out a question-
aire. Questions included “What is
ncer?” and “Did your brother or
ster do something wrong to get
ncer?”
To the question, “What is the
orst thing about cancer?” most chil
dren answered that it can kill,
jf! Sally Francis, the director of the
child life-child development depart
ment at the medical center, told the
children it’s OK to feel anxious and
frightened and it’s OK to feel angry
; that their parents are spending so
much time with the sick child. She
showed them a film, “Siblings Speak
Out,” featuring children talking
about what it’s like to live with a si
bling who has cancer.
|l The children on the screen spoke
honestly, with courage and compas
sion. “Sometimes I think I’m going
to be next,” one girl says. “I think I
might get it.” Another young boy
says, “Sometimes I wish I had it so
I’d get as much attention.”
(, The siblings, ranging in age from
4 to 16, sat in a circle intently watch
ing the film. Some sat motionless,
[ others swayed their legs under their
chairs. But no one took their eyes otr
the TV screen.
After a brief discussion of the
film, the children visited the clinic
where their siblings are treated.
They talked with Dr. Peggy Sartain,
a pediatric oncologist and associate
professor of pediatrics at the Uni
versity of Texas Southwestern Medi
cal School. She described cancer,
chemotherapy, blood counts, intra
venous injections, radiation and hair
loss. Later, Francis and co-workers
let the children handle I Vs, syringes
and stethoscopes as the adults ex
plained how the devices are used.
“I just feel sorry for her. I
wish it wasn’t her. I wish it
was me. She doesn’t un
derstand. I do. A little
bit. ”
— Zachary Brooks, 9,
whose 4-year-old sister,
Sara, has cancer
Finishing up with a hamburger,
potato chip and cookie lunch, the
children said they enjoyed the pro- about cancer than a group from a
He, too, feebleft out. “She was
getting all the dtention,” he says.
“When Sara wuld ask for some
thing, they (hi parents) would say
yes. When I iked for something,
they would sa^o and run off (to the
hospital). TW left me alone.”
But his fef is that Sara’s cancer
will reappea* “When she goes in for
chemothera'y or a CAT scan, that
the cancer dll have grown all over
her face. O someday, she may never
wake up.”
Francisias heard such fears from
a numbe of siblings. Since 1981,
Francis ctd Hilda Glazer-Waldman,
an assistnt professor of allied health
educatifl at the University of Texas
Health Science Center at Dallas,
have sudied some 75 siblings be-
tweenthe ages of 5 and 16. Using
standt'dized interviews, question
naire and problem-solving tests, the
rese?'chers attempt to determine
the ablings’ knowledge about can
cer their self-esteem and general
fedngs about their brother’s or sis-
tejs illness.
So far, they have found that chil-
den don’t understand cancer and
ne various ways to treat it. “The si
blings really don’t know any more
gram. “They helped us understand,
11-year-old Vicki Solomon said. So
lomon’s 14-year-old brother was di
agnosed Feb. 14 as having cancer. A:
2 that morning, her brother became
sick with symptoms similar to those
of appendicitis. Six hours later, they
were told her brother’s pain was
caused by a 7-pound tumor in his
stomach.
The tumor was inoperable, Solo
mon says, so doctors placed him on
chemotherapy. Most of his hair has
fallen out and he has lost 24 pounds.
But the tumor is gone. “They say the
chances are good,” Solomon says,
looking down to the floor. “But
normal population,” Francis says.
When a 5-year-old boy was asked if
his brother did something wrong to
get leukemia, he replied, “Yes. He
atelasagna sometimes.”
Some children, like Brooks, be
lieve they gave their sister or brother
caicer. “They assume the guilt,”
Fiancis says. “Children still think
eccentrically. They think the world
nvolves around them. They make
tiings happen.”
Glazer-Waldman and Sharon
Jitch, a clinical social worker in the
nedical center’s oncology depart-
nent, are trying to determine what
helps families handle a child’s illness.
there’s still a chance it could come Through their research, funded by
back.” the Association for the Care of Chil
dren’s Health, they have identified
She says she’s scared for hei some 12 characteristics,
brother, Brian, but she also gets mac
at him. “For a year, I was asking fo
a 10-speed bike,” she says. “H-*
ended up getting one. He gets i
whole lot more. I feel left out. All tie
kids feel left out.”
Solomon, who lives in Garlatd
The parents and siblings typically
have a very hard time dealing with
the trauma, for example, if the prog
nosis for the child’s recovery is not
good, the family lives far from the
ospital and English is their second
with her parents, three brothers md language. Single parents with little
frit
ing” about her brother’s disease.Her
one wish, she says, “is that the emcer
won’t come back and Brian wll be
better.”
members to turn to for support also
may have difficulty.
Although the program focuses on
the problems of siblings of cancer
patients, Francis says her research
Brooks has similar hopes i'or his shows that a brother’s or sister’s ill-
sister, who finished her chtfnothe- n ess usually doesn’t devastate the
rapy treatments this summei- “I just child for years. “Not every child has
feel sorry for her,” he says. ‘I wish it long-lasting negative effects,” she
wasn’t her. I wish it was me. She says. “That’s our hope for every
doesn’t understand. I do. A little child. Every sibling. Every family.”
bit.”
JOE "KING" CARRASCO
fRIDAY - SEPTEMBER 18TH 8:30 p.m.
JeWare Fieldhouse
Tickets $5.50 - TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE TAMU BOX OFFICE 845-1234
ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR
December & May Grads
M.E., Chem. E.,
and M.B.A.’S with technical undergraduate degrees:
What does an engineer
do in
MANUFACTURING
MANAGEMENT?
FIND OUT!
PROCTER & GAMBLE
will be hosting an open house
Tuesday, Sept.22,7:00 p.m.
Rudder, Room 308
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IN A HIGH POWER POSITION.
It’s a simple fact. The Navy Nuclear Propulsion
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It can also be rewarding. If you’re a math,
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could be earning $1100 a month right now
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You’ll receive a year of paid graduate-level
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In addition to the professional advantages,
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promotions, and regular salary increases.
Find out more about the Navy* Nuclear
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Navy Management Programs(713)226-2445.
(collect calls accepted)
Or, stop by and talk to our representatives
at the Engineering Career Fair Sept. 23 and 24.
NflVY^ OFFICER.
LEAD THE ADVENTURE.