Outdoor Pest Solutions

Bugs And Weeds,

Lawns To LakesTM

Environmental Information of Concern to Texans.

The Following video feed is brought to you by Rational Environmental Solutions. The content presented in the videos does not necessarily represent the views of the sites owner, but is provided as a service to our visitors.

Ladybird Johnson, the former First Lady, and friend of wildflower enthusiasts everywhere has passed away. She will be missed by all, and always remembered for her contributions as a conservationist and dignified public figure.

Bluebonnet Worms?

An interesting tidbit: Corn Ear Worms start their lives in Bluebonnets! In the next generation, they move to corn, and for the 5th and 6th generations, they live in cotton as Cotton Bowl Worms. Who knew that the State Flower Of Texas was harboring a public enemy? For more on this and the bats that eat them, see www.ecoprotex.info.  

Lake Tyler East Hydrilla

The city of Tyler Texas recently accepted a bid for the control of hydrilla in Lake Tyler East. This is a problem which will have to be dealt with on a regular basis for Texas cities, and lakes, so we might as well gear up for it. It will continue it's spread long into the foreseeable future. If you don't have it in your water supply, you eventually will.

The spread of kudzu into the East Texas environment, continues to be a problem, and will grow to be a very big problem in the next few years, if action is not taken soon. I have personally observed it as it began to systematically dismantle wooden fences, and was amazed by the rate of growth, which is better measured in minutes than days, and it's near animal like ability to move. There are parts of the country where this problem has grown so out of control that it is eating up woodlands and farms at an alarming rate.

Fireant control has reached the level of multi million dollar business in the state of Texas, and will also continue to increase, unless we have some unusual climatic changes in the near future.

Johnson-grass is still a problem in Texas, and will always continue to be so.

Bahiagrass is another proof of the radical shift which can occur when something is taken out of it's native environment, and reinstalled in a new ecosystem.

The foreign invasion, is likely the cause of our limited ground nesting bird population throughout East Texas. West Nile virus, is being detected more often these days, and the diseases which can be carried by our little buzzing friends, are not limited to West Nile and Malaria, although that would be enough. Malaria kills more people in the world than any other disease, and it is coming to a lawn near you!

What's a Texan to do? Well, we need to come up with a comprehensive approach to the foreign invasion problem for one thing, but the main thing we should do, is protect ourselves.

If you have a mosquito problem, find that standing water, and drain it. If you can't do it yourself, find someone who can, and hire them to do it. This is the first step. If this is done, you should see the problem vanish. If you don't, you might want to cut back on the irrigation water a bit.

There are a number of things that can help, with the mosquito problems, such as encouraging purple martins to inhabit your area. This is a biological control, and one that works well.

Farmers Markets:

If not already open, a farmers market in your area will be opening soon. Support them! You can count on the produce being locally grown and fresh from the farm. Aside from the freshness and great taste, you will be supporting the backbone of our society, the real heroes of our culture.

I don't care how many aircraft and buildings you can produce, if you don't have farmers and ranchers, you don't have the food to fuel growth in any sector of the economy! Without the food they produce, science and education would cease. Without them, advances in art, music, the humanities, and the sciences would cease!

At last count, there were fewer than 2% of our nations population producing the food for the rest of us. Remember, if the prices are slightly higher this year, that the fuel prices were a lot higher, so the cost of production was higher as well.

On a related subject, dairy production, is not keeping up with demands at the moment. I am sure you have noticed the rise in milk product prices in your supermarket. The demand is growing, but the numbers are not. Many dairymen are opting to go into corn and cereal grain production because of the boom in interest in ethanol production. The dairy business has long hours, and hard work, and is losing it's appeal to many who see cereal grains as the wave of the future.

Bio Fuels: Avoiding Unintentional Environmental Consequences

One of the many ag news sources I digest (Get it?) recently reported that many dairymen throughout the country are closing down their dairies, selling the cows, and preparing to plant corn and soybeans instead. This is largely due to the fact that dairy work is long, hard and arduous, and the lure of money from the ethanol market seems like a much better gig. It is a shift that can make a lot of sense, but look for it to have an effect on milk, and other dairy prices. This brings me to my point. The ripple effect in economy and environment.

This is often very tricky and unpredictable, particularly with such volatile industries, but it is worth spending a little time in consideration, particularly since it could bring about some unintended consequences, and perhaps, some inconvenient truths.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the movement away from fossil fuels, and toward bio fuels. I like the idea of growing our fuels. It would be great for the environment, at least to a point. Let me explain my concern.

If in the process of raising the raw materials for this change, we can avoid creating new environmental problems, it will be not only great, but bordering on the miraculous! One of the things we will need to deal with is the question of erosion. The ethanol market will, without a doubt, draw many people into farming, most of whom will have little interest in maintaining environmental integrity. Can we accomplish this without producing a new "dust bowl?"

What if we find that production will be insufficient for our needs due to drought or flooding, after we have become dependent on these new methods? Will we then turn to methanol production and suffer the effects of billions of people stripping the forests and pastures in order to drive.

What will happen if so many of our farmers ranchers and dairymen migrate to ethanol production, and away from food production that it affects the prices and availability of food adversely? Great, we have fuel to get to the store, but no food to buy when we get there!

I am not saying that bio fuels are not the answer. When coupled with other technologies and innovations, including solar technology, storage cell improvements, better ways to harness wind and kinetic energy, more efficient power generation and application, hydrogen power, and many others, all working in tandem, great progress can be made. We need to make sure that we do not put all our eggs in one basket, as we seemingly have done with fossil fuels. We also need to make sure that we are prepared to deal with the different set of consequences that are possible with any emerging technology.

James Burns is a licensed pest control professional, has been a Certified Professional Turfgrass Manager for more than 16 years, has a lifetime of experience in horticulture and agriculture, and is the owner of Rational Environmental Solutions, an IPM based pest control company in East Texas. He also has many helpful gardening tips at http://www.texpest.com, and writes on environmental and social issues from http://www.rationalenvironmentalsolutions.com

Copyright 2007 James Burns

Home About Site Map  FAQ  Privacy Blog

etexbiz@gmail.com  

12056 County Road 1139 Tyler TX 75709

Searchwarp

log