Passport to Texas

Fire ant image from http://fireant.tamu.edu/.

Invasives: Do Home Remedies Manage Fire Ants? Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The impact of red imported fire ants in Texas is $1.2 billion annually. These insects wreak havoc in urban, agricultural and wildlife areas and pose threats to plants and animals. Because of that—they must die.

12—Generally what we recommend is a broadcast bait over the whole entire yard in the spring and in the fall, and that dramatically cuts down on the amount of fire ants that you see popping up in-between those times.

Entomologist, Elizabeth “Wizzie” Brown is with AgriLife Extension. She says broadcast baits take time, but are effective. Impatient and desperate homeowners have tried homemade treatments for what they hope will be quicker kills.

28—Club soda was a big one. People were asking me about this, so that’s when I did my testing and it didn’t work. Used coffee grounds are another one—a lot of people were using that to treat fire ant mounds; Again, I didn’t find that that one worked. Ground cinnamon….. This year I’m hoping to test cayenne pepper and oak ash. I had somebody bring oak ash to me; he says that he uses it all the time and that he doesn’t have any fire ants and so we’re going to test that one out and see what happens.

We have links to information about managing this biting pest at passporttotexas.org.

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

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Resources:

http://fireant.tamu.edu/
http://fireant.tamu.edu/controlmethods/

Redfish on the half shell on the grill.

Angling/Cooking: Red Fish on the Half Shell Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Through December, adult red drum, called bull redfish, congregate near shore in spawning aggregations, making them easily accessible, but not easy to reel in.

05—They’re very powerful; and if you ever catch one it would be like trying to hold a bull in place.

Bill Balboa is a fisheries biologist for the Galveston Bay system. These fish get pretty big – some as long at 48 inches. They’re good looking fish, but are they good eating at that size?

13— It’s just a matter of how you prepare it. It’s going to be a large fillet, so you may want to cut it perpendicular to the long axis of the fish, so you that you get long, narrow strips of meat – sort of like steaks – because, you’re not running along muscle fibers.

I know Bill is a home cook and griller, so I asked him how he might prepare one of these big fish.

21— One of the most popular ways, especially for some of these big ones, is what they call redfish on the half shell. You fillet the fish, you leave the skin and the scales on – you can even leave the ribcage intact on the fillet – and you throw it on the barbecue pit. You can season the flesh with whatever you like. The beauty is, the scales and the skin is so tough, it’s almost impossible to burn the meat of the fish.

Bill says he partially covers the fish with foil and if it is a large fillet, cooks it over direct heat for about 8-10 minutes.

That’s our show…The Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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

Dinosaur Track at Dinosaur Valley State Park

TPW TV: 112 Million Years Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Artist, photographer and sculptor, Mike O’Brien, has spent the past 15 years documenting tracks in the Paluxy River near Glen Rose made millions of years ago by dinosaurs. He’s featured this month on the Texas parks and Wildlife TV series. Producer Ron Kabele.

59— When he started this, he didn’t have access to all the cheap technology that he has now. Now he can do 3-D tracks, he can do geo-positioning of each track. And then, when you combine it with Google Earth, he gets some fascinating maps.

This segment airs the week of September 22. Check local listings.

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

Jetty fishing at sunrise

Fishing: Fishing License Changes on the Way? Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For years, whether you hunted or fished, no matter when you bought your license, it expired August 31st.

03— The primary reasoning for that is driven by hunting seasons.

That’s Tom Newton who oversees licensing at Parks and Wildlife. Dove season opens the first weekend of September, followed by a succession of other seasons. By mid-spring most hunters have full freezers and won’t go out again until fall.

Anglers aren’t limited by set seasons. Yet, if an angler buys a license in July, for example, they still have to pay full price even though it will expire in a month’s time.

But that’s changing.

42— We’re looking at the possibility and the fiscal feasibility of converting to an annual basis for all the fishing licenses, because that’s a different situation than the set hunting seasons. There are no real seasons for fishing that would interfere with annual licenses; there are no tagging activities – other than the red drum tag – so we’re looking at that. We have one fishing license that’s now annual that’s called the year from purchase all water fishing license. People really like it and they’re buying it at a brisk pace. So, probably within the next few years we’re going to go to an annual year from purchase on all of the various fishing licenses. Hunting licenses have to remain on the current schedule because of the tagging. The super combos and the combos will probably stay as they are because they have hunting licenses included within them.

The Wildlife and sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and provides funding for private lands and public hunting programs in Texas.

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

Bryan Frazier hikes off into the sunset.

State Parks: Bryan Frazier Says "Good-Bye" Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We say good-bye today to our State Park Guide, Bryan Frazier, who accepted a new job as Travel Director with the Texas Department of Transportation. If ever you thought Bryan’s love of parks was for the radio only, you didn’t know Bryan.

56 –Being outdoors has always been, since childhood, a meaningful experience. No building or structure can rival what nature has. And, the things that we have in nature are not only unique, they’re irreplaceable. And the time spent outdoors is time well spent. I love hiking, wildlife watching, and I especially love fishing. So, it’s all of those things, and then I have a reference point that it was done with my family when I was a child. So, the time is not only something I enjoy doing, but it’s nostalgic, too, I think of times with my dad and my brother when I was a small child, and how much fun it was, and the lessons learned, and the conversations had — all while outdoors. So, you take that whole package; it does something to the human soul…being outdoors… like nothing else can.

Thanks, for everything, Bryan. And good luck!

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet, supporting outdoor recreation in Texas; because there’s life to be done.

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