SAN ANTONIO Texas Parks and Wildlife has awarded a significant grant to Texas State University in an effort to better understand the threat of white-nose syndrome in Texas bats. TPWD is giving Texas State a $500,000 grant, making it one of the largest grants ever given by the department to study non-game wildlife, officials said. Here in Central Texas, bats aid farmers by eating the insects feeding on their crops and are estimated to save cotton farmers $74 per acre in pesticide use. Thus, it is unknown how susceptible Mexican free-tailed bats are to white-nose syndrome, said Texas State associate professor Ivan Castro-Arellano. The study will also identify weather-related and landscape habitat activity patterns for Texas bats in order to help predict the distribution and activity of priority bat species.