Passport to Texas

Zebra Mussels

Wildlife/Citizen Science: Helping Biologists Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Texas Mussel Watch volunteers collect data on rare and at risk mussel species.

20— Texas Mussel Watch Volunteers get out there in water bodies in their local communities, and they record all of the freshwater mussels that they observe at that site. And it takes a really special person to do that, because they’ve got to get in the water, muck around in the mud…. They’re just really special volunteers.

Program coordinator, Marsha May said during routine monitoring, one of her volunteers made an important discovery.

30— Near the end of September, one of my volunteers sent me an email with fabulous photographs of a species she found in Lake Belton attached to another native mussel, and really to me it looked to me like Zebra Mussels. I wanted to be absolutely sure, because that’s not something you take lightly. I sent the email with the photographs on to Inland Fisheries and they sent some folks out to Lake Belton and confirmed that they were Zebra Mussels.

Zebra mussels are a highly destructive non-native invasive species, and we’ll learn more about them tomorrow.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Snake in the grass at Big Bend Ranch State Park

Wildlife: Watch Out for Snakes Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Now that triple digit heat has given way to mild fall weather, you may decide to spend more time outdoors. If you do—my advice—watch your step.

:07—Probably most people who spend any amount of time hiking in Texas have been within arm’s reach of a diamondback and never knew it.

Andy Gluesenkamp is a herpetologist with TPW. Don’t let what he just said about the big, scary venomous Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (the deadliest snake in North America) keep you locked up indoors.

:07—Diamondbacks would by and large much prefer to avoid contact than get in some sort of fisticuffs with a large animal like a human.

These snakes play defense. They usually hang out in the vicinity of fallen logs, brush piles, rocks. If they think you don’t see them, they’ll lie perfectly still and let you walk on by.

:14—If they feel threatened by you, the first thing that they’ll do is buzz that rattle. [SFX—western Diamondback Rattling]. On rare occasions when somebody reaches their hands into a crevice, or is picking up firewood and grabs a snake or steps on a snake—then they’re going to react violently. And that’s when people tend to get bitten.

Yeah, so don’t do that. We’ll have more fun with snakes tomorrow.

We receive support from the Wildlife Restoration program…working to restore native habitat in Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Tawny Crazy Ant ID, Image from Texas A&M University

Invasives: Knowing Your Crazy Ants Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you spot a huge number of yellowish brown ants about an eighth of an inch long, moving erratically when disturbed, they may be non-native tawny crazy ants. TPW entomologist, Michael Warriner, says they can turn up almost anywhere.

10— Crazy Ants do not form noticeable mounds like fire ants do. They are pretty much opportunistic nesters, which means they’ll take advantage of existing structures.

Such as bags of soil and mulch, wood piles, electrical boxes, attics, and potted plants. While predators and pathogens keep native crazy ant populations in check, its tawny cousin has no such equalizers…and controlling them is no easy task.

10— Right now there’s not chemical treatments for these. But once a colony is really well established, it’s proven almost impossible to eradicate them.

The best we can do is prevention, which includes not transporting plants or bags of mulch or soil with ants in them, and by removing their nesting places.

14— You want to get rid of any kind of debris that’s on the ground. Fallen logs, thick leaf litter – any place you think might harbor moisture that ants could move into. You want to clear that out.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Tawny Crazy Ant, Image from www.livescience.com

Invasives: Tawny Crazy Ants Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Texas has native crazy ants, but in 2002 when exterminator, Tom Rasberry, discovered a new species of the ant in Harris County, nobody knew what it was.

09— When this ant was found, the folks that looked at it couldn’t assign it any particular species at that time. And that’s why it was called the Rasberry Crazy Ant.

Eleven years later, TPW entomologist Michael Warriner, says researchers know a bit more.

09— Since then, it’s been determined that it is the tawny crazy ant, which is native to portions of central and south America.

These ants swarm in the millions, play foul with electrical wiring and make a general nuisance of themselves. Twenty five Texas counties currently
report populations of tawny crazy ants. But the ants didn’t arrive at these places on their own steam.

21—These ants are being aided in their dispersal by us. Because we’re transporting them in bags of mulch; in potted plants that are driven dozens – hundreds of miles away – and these ants are making it to places before they ever could actually on their own accord.

How to identify and prevent tawny crazy ant infestation – that’s tomorrow.

Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Volunteer at the Gault site archaeology lab.

Pre-History: What's Worth Saving Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Texas Parks and Wildlife archaeologist, Chris Lintz, has to make decisions about artifacts from Texas’ distant past; the significance of these items varies.

09— You’re right that not every single artifact on the ground out there shares equal importance. The important ones are the ones that have context and integrity.

Soil surrounding artifacts provides context, and associating artifacts with integrity – or pristine surroundings—allows archaeologists to interpret past lifeways.

29— Archaeological sites that are buried and sealed by flood deposits contain artifacts related to a single time period and a single event. And those are the best kinds of sites that we would love to try to preserve. Those that occur on mountaintops and hilltops might have artifacts from the entire 11-thousand years of pre-history, and we can’t separate the different occupations out, so they’re very difficult to interpret and contribute to the scientific base of the area.

But Chris Lintz cannot do that if the public disturbs sites or remove artifacts from parks or Wildlife Management Areas.

14—Please leave them alone. Leave them in place. But we’d also appreciate if you’d go back and talk to the people managing the resource, because you never know what’s really going to be an important artifact that might help us interpret the resource we have out there.

That’s our show…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.