Nature’s Pest Control: The Tlacuache removes Elon Musk from the Gulf of Mexico
July 30, 2025
Authors: Bekah Hinojosa, Jayeesha Dutta, Bryan Parras, Yudith Nieto, Liana Lopez
The City of Brownsville, a community on the border and Gulf of Mexico, announced that they were no longer giving out traps to residents for Tlacuaches (opposum in English) because they “ are beneficial for eating unwanted pests around your home and garden such as snails, slugs, spiders, cockroaches,…and rats,” and who knows maybe even the most significant pest of them all in the area: Elon Musk.
Since 2019, Elon Musk has been building a SpaceX launch pad, rocket testing site, facility operations, as well as a company town, on Brownsville’s coastline known as Boca Chica Beach. There on the beach, the ground has been scorched at least a dozen times for unnecessary testing of SpaceX’s largest rocket in human history, the Starship/SuperHeavy, that Musk thinks will one day take rich people to Mars.
South Texas isn’t the only region faced with Elon Musk’s colonization efforts. Elon first left California for Texas because the State has lax environmental regulations and is generally billionaire-friendly by offering massive tax incentives to corporations. Since his arrival, Texans are now facing the buildout of Musk’s endeavors.
In McGregor, TX, Elon Musk tests rocket equipment, causing explosions.
In Austin, TX, Musk has his Tesla car factory, which reaped a massive tax incentive from the City of Austin. A worker died while building the factory. Tesla cars are also known for catching fire, resulting in a mini-explosion.
In the Bastrop, TX area, The Boring Company has a compound that specializes in digging tunnels for Musk. In Robstown, Musk is constructing a water-intensive lithium refinery in a drought-stricken region to support the production of his Tesla vehicles. There may be other Musk ventures in Texas that we’re unaware of.
And then there’s Florida’s Cape Canaveral, which deals with weekly SpaceX launching the Falcon 9 rocket (smaller than Starship Superheavy rocket) to fling Starlink satellites into the night sky. Musk has plans for larger operations at Cape Canaveral, including increased launches of the much larger Starship SuperHeavy rockets. The Federal Aviation Administration is drafting an environmental impact statement for the Starship SuperHeavy rocket launches and hosted public meetings in early July. Community members in Florida have been outspoken for years about the detrimental impact that SpaceX is already having in the area.
The coast of the Gulf of Mexico has become known as the “carcinogen coast,” a region where about three-quarters of its coastline is already dominated by the petrochemical industry. Now it seems that state lawmakers are opening it up for another layer of polluting industry development: Elon Musk’s private space industry.
Who will be the tlacuache(s) that remove this new pest?
Please check out the following organizations that are doing the work on the ground.
Another Gulf Is Possible/Otro GOLFO ES POSIBLE 