Posted on 02/22/2013 4:04:20 PM PST by traumer
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AP) - Dead mice laced with painkillers are about to rain down on Guam's jungle canopy. They are scientists' prescription for a headache that has caused the tiny U.S. territory misery for more than 60 years: the brown tree snake.
Most of Guam's native bird species are extinct because of the snake, which reached the island's thick jungles by hitching rides from the South Pacific on U.S. military ships shortly after World War II. There may be 2 million of the reptiles on Guam now, decimating wildlife, biting residents and even knocking out electricity by slithering onto power lines.
More than 3,000 miles away, environmental officials in Hawaii have long feared a similar invasion - which in their case likely would be a "snakes on a plane" scenario. That would cost the state many vulnerable species and billions of dollars, but the risk will fall if Guam's air-drop strategy succeeds.
"We are taking this to a new phase," said Daniel Vice, assistant state director of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services in Hawaii, Guam, and the Pacific Islands. "There really is no other place in the world with a snake problem like Guam."
Brown tree snakes are generally a few feet (1 meter) long but can grow to be more than 10 feet (3 meters) in length. Most of Guam's native birds were defenseless against the nocturnal, tree-based predators, and within a few decades of the reptile's arrival, nearly all of them were wiped out.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxdc.com ...
What can possibly go wrong.....
It hasn’t tipped over yet?
LOL!
/johnny
just practicing for the homeland?
(old folks’ homes first ?)
I can think of a few toxic ‘Rats I wouldn’t mind seeing tossed out of a plane.
Same here but I can’t decide if we start with the House or the Senate or the Whitehut.
Most of the snakes are in Washington D.C.
Great. Now hippies in Guam will be smoking dead rats for a high.
...provoking a weird mental image of a platoon of mice running in formation and squeaking out some Jody cadence...
Those must be some accurate guided mice!
Where does Soros live?
See, now you are getting logical, that is never a good idea.
make it warm, I guess
Oddly enough, humans are one of the few animals that can tolerate at least some acetaminophen. And even then, it kills lots of humans every year.
While it will kill snakes, it is incredibly toxic to cats. Just destroys their kidneys.
apparently, brown tree snakes will eat anything
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