FEBRUARY 2015 SUNRAYS | 15
ONLINE:
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CA NEWS
Armadillos
Submitted by the Wildlife Management Committee
Armadillos are prevalent in Sun City
Texas. The most common armadillos in
our area are the Texas species, the nine-
banded armadillo; this species has a dis-
tinct shell casing made from bone and it
has two large-shell casings covering the
shoulders and rump with seven to nine
bands in the middle. Usually, the male is
a little larger than the female; both have
short legs but canmove very quickly. They
have strong claws and a long, tapered tail,
14 to 17 inches long that is completely
covered by bony rings. Armadillos use
their tails to help jump three to four feet
into the air when surprised.
Armadillos are solitary, nocturnal ani-
mals with large eyes, poor vision, and
are most active before dawn and, occa-
sionally, at dusk. They can dig burrows
up to seven feet deep with their snouts
and sharp claws. They use these tools to
loosen the soil and then use their long,
sticky tongues to catch insects, espe-
cially worms and grubs, which are their
favorite food.
They can cause trouble by digging up
yards and golf courses and can be catego-
rized as a nuisance because of the damage
they can inflict on greens. If you spot an
armadillo digging on your property, call
a local pest control company for help in
removing it. The Community Association
does not provide assistance with removing
armadillos. The best protection against
armadillos, especially if grubs are found
in your yard, is to eradicate the grubs.
Products for grub eradication are: (1)
Bayer Advanced Grub Control; (2) Omni
Grub Killer; and (3) Bayer Complete In-
sect Killer.
Sources: Google, Wikipedia, and Texas
Parks and Wildlife.
New Hours for
WOW!Mobile
On Tuesday mornings, the hours
of operation for the WOW!mobile
stops are as follows:
• 9-10:30 a.m.
Texas Drive, by Farmers’
Market
• 11 a.m.-noon
Cowan Creek Amenity Cen-
ter parking lot
For more information, please con-
tact Michele Harber, Community
Outreach Librarian, Georgetown
Public Library, wow@georgetown.
org, 512-930-8130 x7152
With colder,
wetter weather
in this win-
ter’s forecast,
I hope that all
irrigation sys-
tems have been
turned to their “off” positions. If
you feel that you must water, the
city will allow up to two days of
watering per week, based on your
address. Exact guidelines can be
found at their website (water.
georgetown.org).
Last winter, several yards were
unintentionally turned into ice
gardens because irrigation control-
lers had not been adjusted. This
could easily have been avoided
if controllers had been shut off
prior to the cold front’s arrival.
Keep yourself abreast of current
weather forecasts, and you can
save thousands of gallons of wa-
ter each year.
Water Matters
By Carlton M. Mathis, Water and
Native Area Manager
It has come to our attention that our Jan-
uary 2015 article,
Manfred Reimann’s
Escape from East Germany
, contained
several errors and understatements. We
would like to amend the following issues:
• Manfred Reimann is the author of
two fiction novels,
Chasing the Sun
and
Singed by the Sun
, not non-fiction
works, as previously stated. Both are
influenced by Reimann’s experiences
and do use events from the author’s
life in both East and West Germany.
These works, authored under the pen
name Patric Sanders, are available
via the Amazon Kindle app.
• The danger of the Stasi secret police
force cannot be understated as an omi-
nous, ever-present force in day-to-day
East German life. Friends, cowork-
ers, and neighbors were all possible
contributors to the Gestapo-inspired
force, which con-
tained an esti-
mated 500,000
informants.
• We would like to
clarify that Man-
fred Reimann’s
high school did
not offer English
classes of any
kind, and that he only learned the
language on account of his father, who
secured him private lessons from a
retired teacher. Reimann’s English
education was further supplemented
with blacklisted Western novels and
through broadcasts from the American
Forces Network (AFN Berlin), which
broadcast the forbidden rock ‘n’ roll
hits of Elvis, Buddy Holly, and Fats
Domino.
Clarifications
Submitted by Jaime Calder, Production/Communications Editor
Manfred
Reimann
