Oak wilt is spread to live oaks through red oaks?
Peter Mongillo, Question Everything
In your last column, you said that in order for oak wilt to spread, "There needs to be an infected red oak in your area, and beetles need to carry oak wilt spores to your neighbor's freshly pruned trees." Why is a "red" oak involved in all of this? The question from the reader A.F. was about pruning live oaks. I'm confused. Does the infection to a live oak come from an infected red oak?
Yes. Live oak trees can pass oak wilt to other live oak trees through interconnected roots. However, oak wilt also is spread to unrelated live oaks from infected red oaks. This is because the fungal mats that produce the disease-spreading spores do not grow well on live oaks.
Why this is the case is a bit of a mystery, according to David Appel, professor of plant pathology at Texas A&M University. Appel says that it could have to do with a difference in the anatomy of the two types of trees or the way in which they respond to the disease, but there has been very little research done on the topic.
Do you know of someone who can use two large boxes of indoor/outdoor Christmas lights of different colors and styles?
The University of Texas Performing Arts Center prop shop will accept this type of donation. The prop shop also takes encyclopedias and other unwanted books for use in stage sets. Contact props supervisor Rebecca Switzer, 471-0624, for more information on donating.
I have old 51 4-inch floppy disks as well as 31 2-inch diskettes that have personal information on them. I no longer have a computer with a drive for either of those disks. How can I destroy them? And, once destroyed, where can the material be recycled?
Round2 Technologies, 6301 E. Stassney Lane (342-8855, www.round2.net), will shred your disks and send them to a company that converts the debris to energy through a process called Energy From Waste (for more information on the process, visit www.covantaenergy.com). There is a fee of $25 per bank box (103/4 inch by 151/4 inch by 131/2 inch) for the full process (they can also destroy hard drives). Balcones Shred, 2416 E. Sixth St. (744-4999, www.balcones shred.com), also shreds and recycles floppy disks.
My elderly father passed away and left us with four packages of Depends and one package of briefs, size medium. Do you know of anyone who might be interested in having them? I hate to throw them away. Thanks for your help.
Austin Groups for the Elderly, 3710 Cedar St., Suite 155 (451-4611, www.ageof austin.org), accepts incontinence supplies as well as durable medical equipment. Drop off donations 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays.
More on monks
Thanks to everyone who wrote in response to the question on monk parakeets. Several readers pointed out that parakeets like to nest atop the lights at the UT intramural fields on 51st Street. They also have been spotted recently in a Mueller neighborhood park behind the Dell Children's Medical Center. Other nesting locations include Cesar Chavez Street at Pleasant Valley Road, Third and Fourth streets at Pleasant Valley Road, and Oltorf Street at Interstate 35, among other places.
Contact Peter Mongillo at P.O. Box 670, Austin 78767; (512) 445-3697; e-mail email@example.com or fax (512) 445-3968.