Dead Mice with Parachutes?

[Mr_Tomahawk]

Really America...? LOL

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...163310851.html

A group of 2,000 dead mice equipped with cardboard parachutes have been airdropped over a United States Air Force base in Guam in order to poison brown tree snakes.

It may sound like the plot to an animated movie starring the vocal talents of Gilbert Godfried, but we assure you this is actually happening.

NBC News reports that the dead mice were pumped full of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. The hope is that the snakes, which are invasive to the area and cause harm to exotic native birds and the island's power grid, will be drawn to the toxic rodents, eat them, and then croak. Other animals face minimal risk, reports the Air Force Times.

Dan Vice, the Agriculture Department's assistant supervisory wildlife biologist for Guam, told KUAM that the mice are dropped in a time sequence from low-flying helicopters. Each rodent is strung up to a tiny parachute made of cardboard and tissue paper.

Via NBC News:

"The cardboard is heavier than the tissue paper and opens up in an inverted horseshoe," Vice said. "It then floats down and ultimately hangs up in the forest canopy. Once it's hung in the forest canopy, snakes have an opportunity to consume the bait."

So how will workers know if the plan is working? After all, it's not like the mice can radio back to base. Or can they? The workers behind the plan told NBC News that some of the mice will have data-transmitting via radios.

The mission is part of an $8 million program from the Interior and Defense departments, Phys.org reports. If the mission is successful, experts may expand it to other parts of Guam. In other words, maybe a sequel is forthcoming.

You can pay me half of that and I will go over and catch the snakes...

[ModSocks]

That is hilarious.

[BlackHelicopters]

'Merica

[loochy]

Originally Posted by theelusiveeightrop

'Merica

no, guam

kind of 'merica, but not really

[IamBATMAN]

Sounds like a terrible plot of a B grade movie....waiting for the sequal where the snakes are now undestructable after eating the tylenol mice and they eat all the children of Guam....Its coming - EXTRA STRENGTH TREE SNAKES OF GUAM!!!!

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by IamBATMAN

Sounds like a terrible plot of a B grade movie....waiting for the sequal where the snakes are now undestructable after eating the tylenol mice and they eat all the children of Guam....Its coming - EXTRA STRENGTH TREE SNAKES OF GUAM!!!!

Notorious and I watched that movie on SyFy

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by Mr_Tomahawk

Really America...? LOL

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...163310851.html

A group of 2,000 dead mice equipped with cardboard parachutes have been airdropped over a United States Air Force base in Guam in order to poison brown tree snakes.

It may sound like the plot to an animated movie starring the vocal talents of Gilbert Godfried, but we assure you this is actually happening.

No it doesn't.

[Pablo]

Just gonna drop this here since it's one of the best movie scenes of the past 100 years, easily.

[BlackHelicopters]

8 mill

[Dayze]

I pray they play the music in the helicopter scene from Apocolypse Now

[Nightfyre]

[Sorter]

Highly doubt this plan produces the desired results.

[Nightfyre]

Snakes might take up taxidermy, however.

[Sorter]

Originally Posted by Nightfyre

Snakes might take up taxidermy, however.

[T-post Tom]

Hawaiian authorities are scared to death that this plague may end up on their shores, even with a healthy mongoose population on most of the islands.

"Shortly after World War II, and before 1952, the brown tree snake was accidentally transported from its native range in the South Pacific to Guam, probably as a stowaway in ship cargo. As a result of abundant prey resources on Guam and the absence of natural predators outside of feral pigs and mangrove monitors, brown tree snake populations reached unprecedented numbers.

Snakes caused the extirpation of most of the native forest vertebrate species; thousands of power outages affecting private, commercial, and military activities; widespread loss of domestic birds and pets; and considerable emotional trauma to residents and visitors alike when snakes invaded human habitats with the potential for envenomation of small children.

Since Guam is a major transportation hub in the Pacific, numerous opportunities exist for the brown tree snakes on Guam to be introduced accidentally to other Pacific islands as passive stowaways in ship and air traffic from Guam. To minimize this threat, trained dogs are used to search, locate, and remove brown tree snakes before outbound military and commercial cargo and transportation vessels leave the island."