Author Archives: wizzie.brown

About wizzie.brown

Wizzie Brown is an Extension Program Specialist- IPM with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Agricultural termites

Posted on by

It’s that time of year again. I just received my first call today. Termite season! What? Termites are usually a problem in the spring you say? While that is true for some types of termites, I get most calls on agricultural termites in late summer into fall. Since we’ve been getting sporadic rain about town the past few days, I imagine that I will be getting more questions on these in the coming days. Agricultural termites are not like drywood termites or subterranean termites in that they prefer… Read More →

Argentine ants

Posted on by

I’ve been getting samples submitted where people suspect that they have Tawny crazy ants infesting their property. They report light brown ants in dense populations getting into everything. Once the samples are submitted, I discover that they are Argentine ants. So why are people mistaking Argentines for Tawnies? Well to the inexperienced they can look very similar especially when you don’t have a good hand lens or microscope to look for hairs on the body. Also, both of them can have high population numbers and supercolonies. Argentine ants… Read More →

Asp caterpillars

Posted on by

I’ve been hearing reports of people being stung by asps (puss caterpillars). The larva is the problematic stage for this insect as the caterpillars often fall out of trees and land on unsuspecting people below. When this happens, the person may get stung. The caterpillar has venomous spines which can cause a varying reaction. There are some people who react more severely to the toxin than others. The severity of the sting can also depend upon the thickness of the skin where the sting occurs. Often stings will… Read More →

The flies are everywhere!

Posted on by

Have you been dealing with as many flies at your house this month as I have? Whenever I’m cooking there seems to be that ONE FLY that is buzzing around driving me crazy. I grab the flyswatter and slowly stalk around the kitchen trying to hunt it down. Sometimes I’m fortunate enough to smack it down out of the air and smash it on the floor. Most times I whizz the swatter through the air and completely miss which, after about 15 minutes of obsessing over the ONE… Read More →

What to do when bees move in

Posted on by

I know that many people are concerned about honey bees and the decline in their population. I don’t want to get into a dissertation on that topic, but instead provide information on what should be done when the turn into a pest. What? Did she just say honey bees and pest in the same sentence? How is that possible? Well, a “pest” is something that is considered to be out of place, so when honey bees move into an unwanted area (under sheds, water meter boxes, wall voids,… Read More →

Webworms invading Austin

Posted on by

I’ve been receiving calls on webworms that are in trees surrounding Ladybird Lake. we also have webworms in a tree at the Demonstration Garden. Since it’s a demonstration garden, I’m using the webworms as a….you guessed it!….demonstration. I’m sure that you have been told (even possibly by me) that you can manage webworms by removing webs and knocking them out the tree with a stick. I decided to see how well it actually works. So far, it’s going pretty well. I started two weeks ago when we had… Read More →

New media coverage and a (taped) FREE webinar!

Posted on by

Media In case you quite haven’t gotten enough from me lately, I thought I would share media that I have been involved with lately. I did a story with KXAN on juniper budworm- you can find that clip here. Some of the information that I spoke about was not covered in the piece, so you can get the full skinny here. I was also recently inteviewed on Central Texas Gardener where I discuss a variety of things- you can find that video here. You can find the clip… Read More →