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Getting antsy.

Article Excerpt
This summer we head into the third decade of groundbreaking research by one of the most underappreciated public health institutions in the state. Maybe it's the clunky name--the Fire Ant Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin's Brackenridge Field Lab--but the nation's premier fire ant experts just can't get no respect. So the first thing I'd like to do is thank Larry Gilbert and his staff of fearless entomologists for taking on what is, gram for gram, Texas's most formidable beast. But in the next breath, I'd like to inquire, as politely as possible, if twenty years of studying this remarkably destructive pest has mattered a damn--because based on the ant mounds I spotted in my backyard this morning, it wouldn't seem to have. Are we any closer to conquering our fiery foes? Well, yes and no. Gilbert, who created the research program at UT back in 1986, says we're making headway, but the fact is that they're here to stay. The best we can aim for, he explains, is "eradication of the pest status of the ant."

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