Texas

Texas officials warn of

Published

12 months ago

January 6, 2025

The New Year is starting with a fresh warning for those who work with animals in Texas. The state’s Parks and Wildlife Department is asking hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts to watch out for animals that may be impacted by dangerous “maneater” parasites from flies that lay eggs in open wounds, nostrils, eyes and mouths.

The advisory, posted by the department on Dec. 30, was issued for outdoor enthusiasts in South Texas after the New World Screwworm was recently found in a cow in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas.

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the New World Screwworm has been making its way further north through the Americas.

“As a protective measure, animal health officials ask those along the southern Texas border to monitor wildlife, livestock and pets for clinical signs of NWS and immediately report potential cases,” the department said.

Texas officials are warning people to look out for signs of the New World Screwworm, known as a “maneater” parasite.

John Kucharski, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What is the New World Screwworm?

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the New World Screwworm “is a devastating pest.”

“When NWS fly larvae (maggots) burrow into the flesh of a living animal, they cause serious, often deadly damage to the animal,” the USDA says. “NWS can infest livestock, pets, wildlife, occasionally birds, and in rare cases, people.”

The Texas parks department says the maggots will lay eggs in “open wounds or orifices of live tissue such as nostrils, eyes or mouth.” Such an infestation is known as New World screwworm myiasis.

“These eggs hatch into dangerous parasitic larvae, and the maggots burrow or screw into flesh with sharp mouth hooks. Wounds can become larger, and an infestation can often cause serious, deadly damage or death to the infected animal.”

The scientific name for the parasite, Cochliomyia hominivorax, is roughly translated to “maneater,” according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“It is an appropriate name,” the agency added, saying that the screwworm was once prevalent in the U.S., with 230,000 cases reported just in 1935. But then scientists developed a way to release sterilized male blow flies, and since female blow flies only mate once, the agency says it “effectively removed that female and her potential offspring from the population.”

It’s believed that the elimination of the New World Screwworm has saved U.S. agriculture workers nearly $900 million in lost livestock annually, the agency said.

Where are New World Screwworms found?

New World Screwworms are endemic in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and countries in South America. The USDA says that cases of the parasite, however, are also spreading north to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

“Although USDA eradicated NWS from the United States in 1966 using sterile insect technique, there is a constant risk of re-introduction into the United States,” the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says. “To prevent the northward movement of this pest from South America to NWS-free areas in Central and North America, APHIS collaborates with Panama to maintain a barrier zone in eastern Panama.”

What to know about New World Screwworm Myiasis

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says that female New World Screwworm flies are “drawn to the odor of a wound or natural opening on a live, warm-blooded animal.” There, just one fly can lay up to 300 eggs at a time, and she may lay up to 3,000 eggs during her lifetime.

Cochliomyia hominivorax, the New World screw-worm fly, or screw-worm for short, is a species of parasitic fly that is well known for the way in which its larvae (maggots) eat the living tissue.

/ Getty Images

After eggs hatch, they become larvae or maggots that burrow into an opening to feed. Once they feed, they drop to the ground, burrow into the soil and emerge as adult flies. The adult flies can travel long distances, the department says, “and the movement of infested livestock or wildlife can increase the rate of spread.”

Signs of NWS Myiasis include irritated or depressed behavior, loss of appetite, head shaking, the smell of decaying flesh, the presence of maggots in wounds and isolation from other animals or people.

To prevent an infestation, Texas officials say to clean and cover all wounds when spending time outdoors, especially in NWS-affected areas, and to apply insect repellant to outdoor clothing.

Li Cohen

Li Cohen is a senior social media producer at CBS News. She previously wrote for amNewYork and The Seminole Tribune. She mainly covers climate, environmental and weather news.

Source link

Click to comment

Texas

Kentucky vs. Texas A&M: Time, TV channel, preview for DI women’s volleyball championship

Published

27 minutes ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Kentucky vs. Texas A&M: Time, TV channel, preview for DI women’s volleyball championship

From the 64 teams selected to compete in the NCAA DI women’s volleyball tournament, just No. 1 Kentucky and No. 3 Texas A&M remain. Reaching the national championship is no small feat, from Dec. 4 all the way to Dec. 18, these two programs have battled to etch their names into history.

Let’s take a look on how the Wildcats and the Aggies punched their tickets to the national final.

No. 1 Kentucky	ROUND	NO. 3 TEXAS A&M
Def. Wofford, 3-0	First	Def. Campbell, 3-0
Def. UCLA, 3-1	Second	Def. No. 6 TCU, 3-0
Def. Cal Poly, 3-0	Regional semifinals	Def. No. 2 Louisville, 3-2
Def. No. 3 Creighton, 3-0	Regional finals	Def. No. 1 Nebraska, 3-2
Def. No. 3 Wisconsin, 3-2	National semifinals	Def. No. 1 Pitt, 3-0

👉 Check out the full schedule, scores from the 2025 women’s volleyball tournament

No. 1 Kentucky (30-2)

Big Blue fought for a dramatic five-setter victory over No. 3 Wisconsin to earn its second ever national championship appearance and first since their 2021 national title. The Badgers seemed to have all control after a Set 1 25-12 victory, but Kentucky wouldn’t be denied. Eva Hudson was on fire, accruing 29 kills on .455 hitting, while Molly Tuozzo’s back-court defense—with 17 critical digs—fought off a career night from Mimi Colyer.

No. 3 Texas A&M (28-4)

The Aggies knocked off No. 1 Pitt in three straight sets, continuing their historic season by earning the program’s first-ever national championship appearance. Kyndal Stowers powered the Maroon and White with 16 kills on .433 hitting while setter Maddie Waak orchestrated her balanced offense to an impressive .382 clip, with four different Aggies earning at least eight put-aways.

Both programs are heating up at just the right time, priming Sunday’s matchup to be an intense face-off between SEC foes. Make sure to follow the action here on NCAA.com at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Source link

Texas

Next Up – Texas Tech In NYC

Published

13 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Date 12/20 || Time 8:00 || Venue Madison Square Garden || Video ESPN

With the exception of Michigan on February 21st, Duke will finish off non-conference play on Saturday with Texas Tech in Madison Square Garden.

Why the Garden? Well, first because Duke has a lot of alum in the area. They call it Cameron North for a reason. And second, playing in MSG always draws a lot of attention. Duke could play in United Center – and in fact did, facing off against Arkansas there on November 27th – and it doesn’t draw the sort of attention that MSG does.

Years ago, Texas Tech was an afterthought. Then Chris Beard made the Red Raiders a major power and now Grant McCasland has done very well there too. He has an interesting history.

Other than two-year stints at Northeastern JUCO as an assistant and Arkansas State as a head coach, McCasland’s career has been entirely in the Lone Star state. He’s also been at Midland College, Midwestern State, Baylor as an assistant, North Texas and now Texas Tech.

And he’s won everywhere. And this is really important to understand: it’s really hard to win at places like Midland, Midwestern State, Arkansas State and North Texas. His NCAA record is 263-109 (.707) and 142-32 (.816).

For perspective, Mike Krzyzewski’s career winning percentage at Duke is .766. We’re the last people to take anything from Coach K, but even he’d probably admit it’s easier to succeed at Duke than it is at the places McCasland has coached.

Texas Tech finished 28-9 last season (McCasland’s Texas Tech record: 55-21. Winning percentage .724) and so far this season, is 8-3. The losses have come against Illinois (81-77), Purdue (86-56) and Arkansas (93-86).

Arkansas is the only common opponent but Texas Tech also played Wake Forest, so presumably that video will be a two-for-one for scouting purposes.

Impressively, he’s not coaching the same way at Texas Tech as he did at North Texas. With the Mean Green, with less talent, he played a more deliberate style. In Lubbock, he’s opened things up a bit. His offense is a little freer or maybe less structured is a better way to put it, or maybe less deliberate. He has more room for error with Texas Tech.

The unquestioned star for Texas Tech is JT Toppin, a 6-9/230 lb. junior who is a legitimate Player of the Year candidate. Toppin is putting up 21.9 ppg, 10.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists. He’s got a 7-0+ wingspan and is also an excellent defender. He needs to work on his outside game but is widely seen as a future pro. He’ll almost certainly guard Duke’s star Cameron Boozer.

McCaslin also has a solid backcourt with Chris Anderson and Donovan Atwell. Anderson, a 6-3 sophomore from Atlanta, is getting 19.3 ppg, 3.5 apg and an impressive 7.5 assists.

Atwell, a 6-5 senior, is putting up 11.3 ppg, 3 rebounds, a half an assist and 1.3 steals.

LeJuan Watts, a 6-6 junior, averages 14 ppg, 5.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists.

Jaylen Petty is a 6-1 freshman who is getting 26 mpg, so obviously McCaslin trusts him. He’s putting up 7.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists.

Tyeree Bryan is a 6-5 senior who is getting 5.6 ppg and 3.4 rebounds.

The last guy in the rotation, Luke Bamgboye, is 6-11/220 but he is injured and most likely won’t play Saturday.

McCaslin, clearly, is a brilliant coach, but he has had some issues this year, not least of all defense.

Texas Tech has struggled on the defensive end, which is one thing against Purdue or Illinois, but it was a problem against Northern Colorado (the Rockies UNC), where the Bears scored 90 points on the Red Raiders, shooting 44% on threes and 56% overall.

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal said this about the game against Northern Colorado: “McCasland hasn’t gotten what he needs defensively from, really, anybody else on the team. He pointed to the team’s lack of ability to guard 1-on-1, in the post, covering switches and working through screens. After a solid defensive showing against LSU and a close game against Arkansas, McCasland said the team took ‘a big step back’ on the defensive end.”

That’s a tough assessment from the hometown paper.

Our guess though is that McCasland will figure out some of his issues between Tuesday’s win over the Bears and Saturday’s trip to New York.

And if Duke plays as poorly as it did in the first half against Lipscomb, Texas Tech won’t have to play great defense. They’ll just pick off balls like the Bisons did with Duke’s 16 first-half turnovers.

Part of that is down to exam/holidays and a lack of continuity, and indeed, that could be the case for Texas Tech’s tough game against Northern Colorado (by the way, we forgot to mention that the Bears were missing their best player, Quinn Denker).

Duke has tended to start slow this year and make it up in the second half and at times they may have been to reliant on Cam Boozer.

But we’ve seen signs of change.

Caleb Foster is turning into a solid presence and a guy who can do things when they need to be done. He’s reliable, in other words. Isaiah Evans hasn’t been shooting that well, but he’s due for a big game that might come in New York. And if not, he’s defending well, rebounding well and even blocking shots. He’s been terrific.

So has Patrick Ngongba, who has sort of snuck up on people. Last year he became a reliable presence off the bench but this year, he looks much more like a warrior. He’s really come on. Then there’s Nik Khamenia, who is as tough a player as we’ve seen in Duke blue for a while.

Maliq Brown is, well, Maliq Brown. He’s just a great asset, especially on defense. We’d like to see Dame Sarr take a step up, along with Darren Harris and Cayden Boozer. All three are very capable of playing better and Duke will go up a level when they do.

New York is a funny place to play. The Garden has such an aura that it can intimidate some players. There are other players who thrive there under the bright lights. It’ll be interesting to see who does this time.

Source link

Texas

North Texas man gives away 120 Christmas trees after slow sales

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

North Texas man gives away 120 Christmas trees after slow sales

The first year selling trees didn’t go as planned for one North Texas man.

Tim Miller, co-owner of Hidden Honey Farm in Midlothian, still had more than half of his inventory earlier this week. But he made the best of a tough situation.

One after another, families kept Miller busy picking, preparing and packing up trees— just in time for Christmas.

All of a sudden, trees were flying off the lot. But that wasn’t the case just days before.

With more than 100 Douglas firs still standing, Miller said sales had come to a grinding halt.

“Four days straight with no one,” Miller said.

With Christmas quickly approaching, he had a decision to make.

“We have two options: We’re going to have to dispose of 100 plus trees, or I can give them away and somebody will get some use out of them, so that’s what we decided to do,” he said.

On Tuesday, Miller posted on Facebook: “Our first year of selling Christmas trees didn’t go as well as we had hoped for… If anyone doesn’t have a tree, or knows of someone who needs a tree, they are free for the taking.”

Families who otherwise couldn’t afford a tree began showing up—and word spread quickly.

“I thought, ‘Hey, I wanted to get a Christmas tree for our house anyway. Let’s go get one!’” said Miriam Beachy, holding her 1-year-old son Jeremiah.

Miller said the response was overwhelming, with donations pouring in from across the country.

“All over! Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, California, somehow or another, people have seen our post and said, you know, we’d like to help,” he said. “I had no idea we would get the results that we have.”

In just two days, all 120 trees found their “fir”-ever homes.

“It really felt like a gift,” Beachy said.

“The appreciation that they have, and I know there’s results I’ll never know of,” Miller added.

He’s still deciding whether to sell trees again next Christmas, but said after the feedback and support he’s received, he’s leaning toward it.

Source link