Fire Ants Rejoice--Jerry Cook is Leaving Texas!

Jerry Cook in his lab, with one of his favorite fire ant bait posters.

Fire ants in Texas can kick up their little heels with glee. Jerry Cook is leaving the state, but the insect celebration may not be a long one.

Cook, one of Sam Houston State University's top researchers, will take a job with the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., Jan. 1. But he vows it will not affect his fight against fire ants in Texas.

Cook, associate professor of biology, was asked by the National Science Foundation to become their program director for systematics and biological survey and inventory.

He agreed to take the job, for a minimum of a year with no plans to stay longer, and his colleagues in the College of Arts and Sciences say it is quite an honor for him and for Sam Houston State.

As a program director, Cook will primarily be in charge of overseeing grants. This includes talking to scientists, submitting proposals, arranging reviews and review panels to evaluate proposals, awarding grants and overseeing grants.

"What I hope to bring back to Sam Houston State University is more knowledge of the granting process and some visibility for my program and the university," he said. "Almost all of the other program directors are from research intensive universities, and my appointment means that SHSU is at least on the radar of the National Science Foundation."

Cook credited other researchers at SHSU who have received NSF grants, as he has, and who have served on grant panels and as reviewers.

The main focus of Cook's research has been ants, especially red imported fire ants. Some of his funds have come from the Texas National Guard.

"They manage large tracts of land and are serious about being good land stewards," said Cook. "At one of their sites, Camp Swift, near Bastrop, fire ants were eliminating a rare harvester ant."

The Guard is also concerned with managing fire ants in their training area and keeping their troops from ant attacks while practicing how to repel more traditional enemy attacks.

Cook has also worked with the U. S. Forest Service to determine if their burning and thinning practices might be encouraging the introduction of more fire ants. After three years of study, he concluded that these practices "appear to be having only minimal effects on ant populations."

Cook continues to monitor ant populations and to evaluate new control products. Some have suggested the use of large amounts of bait to try to eradicate fire ants.

"It was tried once when Mirex was available and was spread across parts of the southern United States by airplanes," he said. "The net result was that most fire ants were eliminated in the areas covered, along with almost all of the other ants in the area.

"A year later, the areas had larger numbers of fire ants than before and native ant species were gone."

Cook has also done studies at National Guard sites and the Center for Biological Field Studies at SHSU on a parasitic fly that attacks only fire ants, which does impact the ants but does not eliminate them.

"Other groups are also releasing them in other parts of Texas, which should help put pressure on fire ants," he said, "but the ants are here to stay."

Cook also studies the insect parasite Strepsiptera, working with the California Academy of Sciences, examining Strepsiptera species collected in Madagascar. He is also working with a University of Kentucky researcher who collects Strepsiptera in Colombia and Thailand.

"Strepsipterans have no effect on humans," he said, "except that they are part of the diversity of life, all of which affects other parts of life, including us."

One of Cook's areas of research that does have a direct effect on human "life," or at least investigations into how it ends, is his work on forensic entomology. For example, fly maggots found on a body can help estimate time of death and tell if the person had drugs or other toxic substances in their body.

Cook worked on a homicide case with the Texas Rangers this past summer, and is writing a text on forensic entomology that is scheduled for publication next year.

His several research areas are all good reasons that he plans to return often to Huntsville, in addition to the fact that his wife, Tamara, will continue to teach in the Sam Houston State biology program.

"I have three graduate students and four undergraduates working in the lab," he said. "and I have two active research grants not counting my NSF grant that I have to give up when I become a program officer at NSF. My lab will remain active during the year I am away."

—END—

SHSU Media Contact: Frank Krystyniak
Oct. 26, 2006
Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.