This was an exceptional symposium!!! There is a lot of excellent research going on in Texas, especially the rolling plains! The work being done on the eye worms and cecal worms probably elicited the most excitement! This is most prevalent in years where they get large late-summer rains. The worms' intermediate host is the cricket and grass hopper. A bird eating one infected insect can end up with over 60 eye worms and 300 cecal worms. These are blood suckers and can cause direct mortality in extreme cases. However, birds with lower infections are depleted to the point that predation and accidents take a lot more birds. Many of the birds with eye worms get tunnel vision with sight only to the side. These birds have been seen to fly into fences, barns, vehicles, etc.
We toured a ranch NE of Abilene. These folks have no concern for $ it seems. On that ranch, they are spending $38/acre just to control prickly pear. They are roller-chopping them and treating with Tordon with a sprayer on the chopper. I guess I didn't realize just how degraded much of the habitat in Texas was. What was traditionally a more grassland system is now dominated by brush, pear, and cool-season grass (Texas Winter Grass). The ranch we toured had gone to a 90 day grazing season starting in January. 3 Days well spent!!!
