Listen
Mosquito season is hitting peak activity — and if it seems like this year’s batch is particularly bad, you might be on to something. We’ll hear from people keeping tabs on mosquito populations in our area, plus the do’s and don’ts of prevention.
Touch Girl Apple Blossom, the KUTX Artist of the Month for June, makes twee music that’s as dreamy as it is rockin’. They’re taking their latest album, “Graceful,” on tour overseas.
Austin Signal is made possible by listeners like you. You can support our work by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] We haven’t yet hit the 100 degree mark here in Austin this summer, but you know we’re gonna do it very soon. What is already in peak activity, mosquito season. And if it seems like this year’s batch is particularly bad, well, you might be onto something. We’re gonna go out in the field with the people keeping tabs on mosquito populations in our area, and we’ll talk about the do’s and don’ts of prevention that you can put into action now. Plenty more about mosquitoes coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:34] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:39] Plus, the KUTX Artists of the Month for June makes twee music that’s as dreamy as it is rockin’. They’re taking their latest album, Graceful, on tour overseas. We’re gonna chat with a couple members of Touch Girl, Apple Blossom. That and a whole lot more. Coming up next, it’s all right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Kehono. It is Monday, June 29th. Glad you’re here with us. An update since we last spoke, the Austin Independent School District is pushing most of its school boundary realignment changes to the 2028-29 school year. The plan, which could change enrollment areas for students in all grades, was set to take place in the 2027-28 school year to help balance enrollment. But… The district says moving the date will let them make better and more sustainable long-term decisions. We have more about that story at KUT.org and on the KUT app. We are in the thick of mosquito season and you may have wondered if there are more of the bloodsuckers buzzing around this year. Well, you’re not imagining it. Health officials say mosquito activity does appear to be higher than normal, at least so far. Austin Signals’ Alexandra Hart takes a look at how local authorities keep an eye on mosquito populations and the diseases they carry.
Alexandra Hart [00:02:08] It’s a warm, suffocatingly humid morning, and I’m wading through tall grass around a small creek not too far from the UT campus. Perfect conditions for mosquito trapping.
Aaron Urbanek [00:02:21] Today is the day that we set, so you’re probably not going to get good audio.
Alexandra Hart [00:02:24] I’m meeting up with Aaron Urbanek, he’s senior environmental health officer with Austin Public Health. He and his team are here to set up a device to trap a particular species of mosquito, Culex mosquitoes, which are the primary carriers of West Nile here in Central Texas.
Aaron Urbanek [00:02:40] So this style of trap, since they take a blood meal and then go to lay eggs, is real specific to Culex mosquitoes.
Alexandra Hart [00:02:49] It’s one of about 30 traps the team sets across the city each week. The way it works is a reservoir of stinky water attracts female mosquitoes that are ready to lay eggs, then a small battery-powered fan sucks them up into a net.
Aaron Urbanek [00:03:03] And so they’re alive when we go to collect them after 24 hours. Pretty simple little rig.
Alexandra Hart [00:03:09] The mosquitoes then get sent to the Texas Department of State Health Services for lab testing. It’s important for health officials to keep an eye on mosquito populations not only because they’re a nuisance, but because they can carry diseases. A human case of West Nile has already been confirmed this year in Harris County. Closer to home, a mosquito pool in Williamson County recently tested positive for the virus. And if it feels like mosquitoes are especially abundant right now, health officials I spoke with all agreed that. That appears to be the case. While they don’t track exact numbers, Urbanic says they have been noticing more mosquitoes in their traps overall, and that’s due to a mix of favorable weather conditions. First, mosquito populations got a head start this season thanks to a warm winter.
Aaron Urbanek [00:03:55] And so some of the eggs that even might be sitting dormant in the ground, even those are viable.
Alexandra Hart [00:04:01] Then a cool, wet spring and summer so far is helping things along. Lots of rain means plenty of standing water for female mosquitoes to lay eggs in.
Aaron Urbanek [00:04:10] And so we’re right at that level where the temperature’s great and the weather’s great and all the reproductive stuff that’s going on with mosquitoes is just right in the range for them.
Alexandra Hart [00:04:21] But more mosquitoes flying around doesn’t automatically mean more disease.
Bethany Bowling [00:04:27] We haven’t seen anything too crazy yet.
Alexandra Hart [00:04:32] That’s Bethany Bowling. She’s with the Zoonotic Virology Laboratory at the Texas Department of State Health Services. This is where mosquito samples are sent to get tested for viruses. Only certain mosquitoes actually get tested, females because they’re the ones that bite, and the lab is looking at just a handful of species.
Bethany Bowling [00:04:50] So in Texas, we have over 85 different species of mosquitoes, but there’s only about five or six that are really important for virus transmission. So we focus on those species. We call those vector species.
Alexandra Hart [00:05:04] Bowling says the lab is testing for three main diseases, West Nile, St. Louis encephalitis, and Eastern equine ence phalitis. West Niles is by far the most common, and while it can cause serious complications in rare cases, Bowling only about 20% of people infected with West Nial actually develop symptoms.
Bethany Bowling [00:05:23] So there can be a lot of people who get bit with a mosquito and actually get infected with West Nile virus, but they will be asymptomatic.
Alexandra Hart [00:05:31] When a mosquito does test positive, Bowling says DSHS notifies the local agency with information about the date and location of the trap that had the infected sample. And then it’s up to the submitter.
Bethany Bowling [00:05:43] Agency what they do with that information. Some will go spray, you know, some sort of adult sighting response. Some don’t have that capability.
Alexandra Hart [00:05:53] While adult deciding, that is, spraying to kill active adult mosquitoes, is one tool in Austin Public Health’s arsenal, it’s typically used as a last resort due to health and environmental considerations. Erin Urbineck with APH says prevention is the first line of defense.
Aaron Urbanek [00:06:10] The biggest one we do in these normal times would be just outreach, talking to people about different ways to prevent mosquitoes. After that, we do larvicide in city-owned right of ways. And then if we meet certain thresholds, then we would look at possibly even adult asiding in a given area. But we haven’t reached those levels in a long time.
Alexandra Hart [00:06:33] He says the number one thing people can do to control mosquitoes is dump standing water around their homes after it rains. That prevents opportunities for the insects to breed.
Aaron Urbanek [00:06:42] A lot of times people want to point to a creek and say that that’s where some of the mosquitoes are coming from. A lot times they’re just homegrown mosquitoes right in someone’s backyard.
Alexandra Hart [00:06:51] Speaking of creeks, I’m meeting back up with Urbanek to check the creekside mosquito traps he set the day before. That sound is him collecting the insects with a tiny vacuum-like device before putting them in a jar to take to the lab.
Aaron Urbanek [00:07:03] Probably today in this trap, there’s probably about 30 to 50.
Alexandra Hart [00:07:08] Is this about what you would expect to see in a trap? Is this kind of accurate?
Aaron Urbanek [00:07:11] It’s a little bit on the low side of what we would normally see this time of year.
Alexandra Hart [00:07:16] This actually surprises me. Urbanic says it’s probably because a recent heavy rain means more flowing water in the creek, which is not conducive to mosquito breeding. But once it dries out a little bit.
Aaron Urbanek [00:07:27] Probably in about a week or so, we’ll start seeing some of those, you know, stagnant pockets of water, so where we’ll see a lot more mosquitoes showing up.
Alexandra Hart [00:07:36] Also, as we move further into the summer heat, mosquitoes spend less time out and about during the daytime.
Aaron Urbanek [00:07:42] A lot more of what they’re doing during the day is just trying to find locations to
Alexandra Hart [00:07:46] Stay cool. Mosquitoes, they’re just like us. I’m Alexandra Hart in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:59] And Alexandra is with us now for a reporter’s notebook. Welcome to the show. Hey, Jerry. So what made you want to look into the mosquito situation this year in particular?
Alexandra Hart [00:08:08] So I was living in Houston earlier this year, which is kind of like mosquito world headquarters, at least it feels like it. And I had heard or read that mosquitoes might be particularly bad this year because we had such a warm winter. And then when we had such a rainy stretch here in Austin, I thought that might be making it worse. Anyone who walks outside with any exposed skin can probably attest to that. So I asked around and sort of the expert consensus was that, yeah, we have all these ideal conditions coming together to make for a very active mosquito season.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:37] Okay, we all know about mosquitoes, at least those of us who have grown up here in Texas, so what surprised you about what you found out in your reporting?
Alexandra Hart [00:08:44] So I think the biggest one was the role that humidity plays. I thought it was always sort of like mosquitoes either just like humidity or, you know, maybe it’s it’s humid because we’ve had lots of rain and so there’s lots of standing water. And so mosquitoes and humidity are sort of correlated that way. But when I was speaking with Aaron with Austin Public Health, he told me that mosquitoes actually need the humidity to survive when it gets too hot and too dry, their bodies sort of dry out and they die. So it’s not just the mosquitoes sort of incidentally are in humid locations because of the water. They actually need that moisture in the air to survive. Also, and this is gonna make me sound like a mosquito propagandist, but some male mosquitoes are actually pollinators, so they’re not all that.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:25] Okay, okay, not all male mosquitoes. Okay, so we say it often, but what can people do about mosquitoes and prevention?
Alexandra Hart [00:09:33] Right. So the prevailing message among everyone I spoke with was dump the standing water out. That’s the easiest factor to control for, and it’s also the least invasive. I spoke with entomologist Wizzy Brown. She’s Senior Extension Program Specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, and she explained it this way.
Wizzy Brown [00:09:50] If you think about it logically, mosquitoes have a complete life cycle. They have four life stages, egg, larva, pupa, adult. And the one that we as humans are focused on are the adults, because the adult females are the ones that take a blood meal and they’re the ones making us crazy. The eggs, the larvae and the pupae are all in standing water. And that is a contained system.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:17] What about pesticides?
Alexandra Hart [00:10:19] Okay, so those generally should be used as a last resort because like Brown mentioned, that just targets one life cycle and also they sort of kill insects indiscriminately.
Wizzy Brown [00:10:29] The majority of the products that people use that are on the market for treating adult mosquitoes in vegetation are going to be broad spectrum contact kill pesticides that can not only kill the mosquitoes, they can also kill any of the other insects that come into contact with it. And that might be bees, that might butterflies, that may be things that you might necessarily want to kill.
Alexandra Hart [00:10:57] So she recommends keeping vegetation trimmed and so sunlight and airflow can get in there and make things less inviting for mosquitoes.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:04] Okay, so what are the things that don’t work?
Alexandra Hart [00:11:07] So she said stuff like dryer sheets, bar soap, eating garlic, all of those don’t make a difference. She also said planting smelly plants like citronella plants that supposedly repel mosquitoes is counterproductive.
Wizzy Brown [00:11:19] So the citronella plant, that one really makes me crazy because yes, it’s kind of stinky, but the thing is you would have to plant your whole entire yard in citronellas and then you’re actually creating habitat because you’ve got that lush vegetation that we were talking about earlier. So it’s a double edged sword on that one.
Alexandra Hart [00:11:41] So instead, if you’re trying to repel mosquitoes, stick with bug spray with DEET or picaridin or oil of lumen eucalyptus. She says the CDC website has a list of repellents that are actually proven to work, so check that out.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:53] All right, that is Alexandra Hart. She is a producer here on our show. Great to talk with you. Thanks, Jerry. And a heads up, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is warning about compromised air quality today as Saharan dust is expected to blow into the state today and possibly tomorrow. The area could have air quality in the middle to upper end of the moderate range and in addition to the haze expect a hot and humid day with a high near 97, it’ll feel more like 102. Stay cool out there and stay tuned in right here to Austin Signal. This is Austin Signal. Thank you for tuning in. The KUTX artist of the month for June is Touch Girl Apple Blossom. Today we’re talking with a couple members of the band, Olivia Garner and Dustin Pilkington. Welcome to the show. Hi. Hey, thanks for having us. So first off, tell us a little bit about yourselves. How long have you been here in Austin and how long have have you been making music individually?
Dustin [00:12:57] Um, my name is Dustin and I, uh, uh I’ve been here like 22 years, which is horrifying to say out loud, but, um, yeah, I’m from Fort Worth originally, but I came here because I had been coming here for years to go to shows. And it was so exciting to me. And I immediately started bands and I’ve been playing, I’ve been consistently in bands since then, sometimes in like four at a time. I’m like. But now it’s, I’ve mellowed out.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:28] Okay. Okay. That’s cool. What about you, Olivia?
Olivia [00:13:32] So I’m Olivia. Taurus. I’ve lived in Austin for ten years now and I kind of started playing music here in Austin during the pandemic so it was really low-key and low-stakes and I was in a band that never played a show and just, you know, did some random stuff around and then Touch Girl was like my first real band.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:09] And now Touch Girl is the KUTX Artist of the Month. You’re playing in Studio 1A. How are you feeling about things?
Olivia [00:14:15] It’s crazy! Life is crazy. Dreams can come true.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:20] Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about the other band members and how did this current iteration of the band come together?
Olivia [00:14:26] So I met John, the other guitarist, uh, in this pandemic band that never did anything. We were in a country band and it was awesome. One day, hopefully that might, music might come from that. Um, and I met Daniel, the drummer in El Paso when he lived there. We did karaoke together at some random bar in Elpaso and he’s an awesome drummer and he moved to Austin. And I used to go to Dustin’s karaoke nights. Around town and I met Dustin through that and when I decided I had like enough songs to maybe start a band I just reached out to this random group of guys that I knew that I thought were all cool and talented and it worked out.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:09] Yeah, what do you enjoy? You said you’ve been in bands for 20 plus years here in Austin. What do you about working with Touch Girl or Apple Bossam?
Dustin [00:15:17] So this is like the first, I’ve loved this kind of music since high school essentially and I was in a semi-pop band called Best Friends back in the day, but it was really obnoxious and screamy and kind of bleepy, bloopy. They were awesome. Yeah, but this is the first band, like pop kind of band that I’ve been in that I’m like, oh my God, yes. Like, I… This is corny, but I’ve just I’ve waited my whole life to be in a band like this and I feel very lucky that the stars aligned
Jerry Quijano [00:16:01] When you say this kind of music, how would you describe the music that is on? Let’s talk about this new, this latest project, Graceful. What kind of Music can people hear on it?
Dustin [00:16:11] Um, I, I am bad at this, but I mean, it’s really just kind of all over the place in my mind. It may have like a common, like sonic thread, I guess, but there, there are dynamics, there’s, it just, some of it’s fun, some it’s sad. I don’t, I’m really bad at explaining.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:37] No worries, no worries. I think the album, at least for me, is as equally dreamy as it is kind of rocky. I was just wondering what were some of the inspirations that led to the music and how long had you been working on these 10 songs that appear on the project?
Olivia [00:16:59] So One of the songs that we’re playing today on the radio is one of the songs from Graceful, and we wrote that song three years ago. These songs we’ve been working on forever. We all sort of like took a lot of time with this record. Cause I mean, for me, it was my first record that I ever recorded. And I didn’t really know what the undertaking would be like. Uh, you know, I think we all contribute songwriting. Dustin, John, and I. Specifically, Daniel plays, you know, writes all of his own drums, but we all have common threads in our taste, but I think a lot of like very, we all bring a unique, our own personal thing to it. And that’s why you can’t really just call it like a Tweed record or like
Jerry Quijano [00:17:49] Everything I read about Touch Girl Apple Blossom included the word Tweet. Are you okay with that? I love it.
Olivia [00:17:54] I love it! I mean, I love because I think it’s more of like an ethos than anything, you know? Like it’s like DIY and adorable, which, you know, I’m down with.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:05] Well the band name comes from lyrics from a beat happening song and now you’re signed to a label founded by the band. How did all of that happen?
Olivia [00:18:12] That’s the craziest thing ever. It really is. It really is um well so the record came out on K slash perennial and that is ran by Jolie and Hayes and Calvin Johnson from Beat Happening is still part of it for sure but uh I have just known Jolie through like this world of twee music just have known her we have mutual friends and they we’re at. This festival that we played in New York that our friend, who’s from Austin, Donna from Chronophage, shout out, she booked a festival in New York and Jolie and Hayes were there and they saw us and they knew that we had a record recorded, like, completed and uh, offered to put it out, which was crazy! And now they’re just the best thing that happened to us in all of them.
Jerry Quijano [00:19:05] Well, you mentioned how much of an undertaking the record was, I think, like, and you said it was your first one that you were making, so I’m sure you were really excited about so many things, but what ended up being the most challenging part about getting it to completion?
Olivia [00:19:19] Oh my god, okay, honestly, to me, I feel like the labor of creating all the artwork and stuff was hard, but I think recording, feeling like lyrics were complete was the hardest thing for me, because I’ve been singing these songs for years, but when I went into the studio to record, I changed everything, you know? I kind of was just like, I couldn’t commit to any… Words, which was difficult for me.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:02] What about you, Dustin? You said this is kind of like you’ve been waiting for this band for a long time, but what was difficult or what was a challenging aspect of creating Graceful?
Dustin [00:20:12] So, a lot of the music was recorded pretty quickly, like, honestly within a few days, but we were lucky that one of our friends was the person recording us, so we got to go back to his house like, you know, every other weekend to add this, that, and the other thing. So, we really took our time. Like, personally for me, it was hard to record vocals. I’ve never sang like this in a band before I’m always like screaming pretty much. So, uh, yeah, I had to do like 10 vocal takes and then go like, and like a thousand false starts, getting in the right mood. I’m sitting in a chair, like trying to get into it. I’m like, this is not like my car. This is not my bedroom. I can’t do this. And yeah, but I think I kind of just said, um, let’s see what’s, what’s the, what the non cuss word for, um. Screw it
Dustin [00:21:13] You can say F it, we’ll bleep it out, yeah, exactly. At a point, I was like, this is how the vocals sound, and we’re rolling with it. And actually, I’m very happy with how it turned out, but that was, it was really hard for me, honestly, just because I get so in my head about stuff.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:46] Well the good thing is that it’s out now, you don’t have to go back, and I don’t think you’re going to be going back and making changes, maybe your friends will be making a visit to you soon. Yeah, the next-
Olivia [00:21:52] Yeah, the next press, a bunch of changes have been made.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:57] All right. Well, good luck with the rest of the year. Congratulations on your album. We’ve been speaking with Olivia Garner and Dustin Polkington. They are band members of Touch Girl, Apple Blossom, the KUTX Artist of the Month for June. We’re going to have a link in the podcast show notes. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:19] And the Studio 1A session from Touch Girl, Apple Blossom will be on the KUTX YouTube soon enough. Be sure to check that out. You can always find that at kutx.org. That is it for us today. You can also find more from our show at k-u-t-dot-org slash signal and more about the stories we shared with you in today’s podcast, Show Notes. Rene Chavez is our technical director, Alexandra Hart is our producer, and Kristin Cabrera is our managing producer. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We will be back with you same time tomorrow. Talk to you then.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
