U.S. Navy Bombs Guam - with frozen mice

[hbarcat]

In a ploy to rid Guam of its population of invasive brown tree snakes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is bombing the island with drugged frozen mice, military news outlet Stars and Stripes reported.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...est=latestnews


“The discovery that snakes will die when they eat acetaminophen was a huge step forward,” Anne Brooke, conservation resources program manager for Naval Facilities Command Marianas told Stars and Stripes. “The problem was how you get the snakes to eat it.”

The solution was to drop the mice into the snakes’ natural habitat, the branches of trees in the jungles of Guam. By outfitting the mice with cardboard wings and green party streams, the bait could float down to the jungle and catch on the branches. The result is a hanging, deadly snack for the snakes.




I'd pay good money to see this.

[baba]

Awe - some.

[macaroni tony]

I, too, would pay handsomely

[Hollow Man]

That's the craziest, most awesome scheme I've ever heard of. Can you imagine some lab scientist taping paper airplane wings and party streamers to frozen mouse corpses? I'm going to intentionally picture that all day.

[CrispyDelicious]

Dunno if it will work. Some snakes will not eat dead prey. Mine will not eat anything unless it's killed the critter itself.

[kesslari]

We humans have a history of well-meaning but poorly thought-out ways to deal with invasive animal populations (that generally were caused by our actions to begin with).

I forget the island, somewhere in the Carribean - island was getting overrun with rats (that got there via trade ships). So the colonial rulers of the island brought in a bunch of cats to control the rats.
Unfortunately, there are no natural predators or population control mechanisms there for cats (which are another introduced species...)
So the cats did make short work of the rats.
Then started decimating the population of other, non-invasive local small critters.
Bad juju.

[IconBasser]

Originally Posted by kesslari

We humans have a history of well-meaning but poorly thought-out ways to deal with invasive animal populations (that generally were caused by our actions to begin with).

I forget the island, somewhere in the Carribean - island was getting overrun with rats (that got there via trade ships). So the colonial rulers of the island brought in a bunch of cats to control the rats.
Unfortunately, there are no natural predators or population control mechanisms there for cats (which are another introduced species...)
So the cats did make short work of the rats.
Then started decimating the population of other, non-invasive local small critters.
Bad juju.

same thing with the introduction of the Cain toad if Australia.

[sloasdaylight]

Yea, but I doubt dead mice will start eating the crops on guam.

[Jim Nazium]

Acetaminophen = Tylenol, right? So the problem is how to get the snakes to take tylenol? Why not give them a bunch of free tequila so they get really drunk, and the next day when they're all hungover, they'll want tylenol for their headaches?

[mid_life_crisis]

Originally Posted by IconBasser

same thing with the introduction of the Cain toad if Australia.

and the rabbit.

[bwv1013]

Originally Posted by Jim Nazium

Acetaminophen = Tylenol, right? So the problem is how to get the snakes to take tylenol? Why not give them a bunch of free tequila so they get really drunk, and the next day when they're all hungover, they'll want tylenol for their headaches?

now see the best ideas always come right AFTER the decision to act...

[baba]

Originally Posted by Jim Nazium

Acetaminophen = Tylenol, right? So the problem is how to get the snakes to take tylenol? Why not give them a bunch of free tequila so they get really drunk, and the next day when they're all hungover, they'll want tylenol for their headaches?

Sounds like a waste of nectar of the gods.

[mid_life_crisis]

Originally Posted by CrispyDelicious

Dunno if it will work. Some snakes will not eat dead prey. Mine will not eat anything unless it's killed the critter itself.

At the very least they need to be warmed up to body temp so they trigger the snake's heat sensors.

[baba]

Originally Posted by mid_life_crisis

At the very least they need to be warmed up to body temp so they trigger the snake's heat sensors.

Nah. I've fed hundreds of thawed mice at room temp or cooler to snakes. I have also had a snake that would only eat what it killed but I always wondered if that was a just in captivity thing.

[sloasdaylight]

Originally Posted by baba

Sounds like a waste of nectar of the gods.

He said Tequila, not Scotch.

[stevetx19]

Originally Posted by CrispyDelicious

Dunno if it will work. Some snakes will not eat dead prey. Mine will not eat anything unless it's killed the critter itself.

smart animal

[EricF]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

Yea, but I doubt dead mice will start eating the crops on guam.

Exactly...in theory, anyway. The idea, of course, is that the snakes eat the mice and both animals die. Therefore, the net result is reducing the snake population, as designed. However, what happens if some of the mice survive? Animals have a strong sense of self-preservation - even half-frozen ones pumped full of painkillers.

Somehow, this plan has the strong odor of being hatched during a long night of booze and cocaine.

[Philbiker]

Originally Posted by Jim Nazium

Acetaminophen = Tylenol, right? So the problem is how to get the snakes to take tylenol? Why not give them a bunch of free tequila so they get really drunk, and the next day when they're all hungover, they'll want tylenol for their headaches?

W

I

N

[hover]

they carpet bombed California with hot Asian assassin chicks to get rid of Maki, we see how well that turned out.

[IconBasser]

Originally Posted by hover

they carpet bombed California with hot Asian assassin chicks to get rid of Maki, we see how well that turned out.

that was a glorious day. College is much more fun now because of it