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Eric Talmadge / AP
A brown tree snake is held by U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist Tony Salas outside his office on Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. There may be 2 million of the reptiles on the island.
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- 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 airdrop 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 long but can grow to be more than 10 feet in length.
Defenseless birds
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.
The snakes can also climb power poles and wires, causing blackouts, or slither into homes and bite people, including babies.
They use venom on their prey, but it is not lethal to humans.
The infestation and the toll it has taken on native wildlife have tarnished Guam's image as a tourism haven, though the snakes are rarely seen outside their jungle habitat.
The solution to this headache, fittingly enough, is acetaminophen, the active ingredient in painkillers including Tylenol.
The strategy takes advantage of the snake's two big weaknesses. Unlike most snakes, brown tree snakes are happy to eat prey they didn't kill themselves, and they are highly vulnerable to acetaminophen, which is harmless to humans.
The upcoming mice drop is targeted to hit snakes near Guam's sprawling Andersen Air Force Base, which is surrounded by heavy foliage and if compromised would offer the snakes a potential ticket off the island. Using helicopters, the dead neonatal mice will be dropped by hand, one by one.
U.S. government scientists have been perfecting the mice-drop strategy for more than a decade with support from the Department of Defense and the Department of the Interior.
Streamers
To keep the mice bait from dropping all the way to the ground, where it could be eaten by other animals or attract insects as they rot, researchers have developed a device with streamers designed to catch in the branches of the forest foliage, where the snakes live and feed.
Experts say the impact on other species will be minimal, particularly since the snakes have themselves wiped out the birds that might have been most at risk.
"One concern was that crows may eat mice with the toxicant," said William Pitt, of the U.S. National Wildlife Research Center's Hawaii Field Station. "However, there are no longer wild crows on Guam."
The mouse drop is set to start in April or May.
A 2010 study conducted by the National Wildlife Research Center found brown tree snakes would cause between $593 million and $2.14 billion in economic damage each year if they became established in Hawaii like they are on Guam.
Power outages would cause the most damage, followed by a projected decline in tourism. The cost of treating snake bites would account for a small share.
Native Hawaiian birds "literally don't know what to do when they see a snake coming," said Christy Martin, a spokeswoman for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, a partnership of Hawaii government agencies and private organizations.
"Once we get snakes here, we're never going to be able to fix the situation," Martin said.
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I'm eagerly awaiting the unforeseen consequence of this plan to fix the consequences of man's earlier interference with nature. :P
I do hope it works, though.
Remember that cartoon with a very small bait-fish on a hook, followed by a bigger fish with its mouth wide open, followed by an even larger fish with its mouth open, followed by...etc...etc...etc...a great white shark.
What about other species that eat carrion like the Coconut Crab (robber crab)? Will this wipe them out as well? I hope this was thought out a whole lot better than it sound from the article....
Years ago If I remember right there was a yearly contest with a prize of a new vehicle to kill the most snakes on Guam. It sounds like the intro of the snakes to Guam has about wiped out the birds. Sounds like the real interest in getting rid of as many as possible there is to reduce the chance of one catching a ride on a plane to Hawaii where they would be just as difficult to eradicate and where birdlife and tourist trade would be victims of the introduction.
Similar situation in Florida with the pythons that just had a rewarded hunt but didn't turn up with many snakes. Just read of Tahoe's goldfish problem.......I made a similar mistake introducing yellow flag iris to my pond not knowing what a weed I'd planted. The scientists attempting to reduce the snakes have thought out as much as they could about the scenarios mentioned in blogs above. We just don't always know what the unexpected results will be but it doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt a remedy to a situation we caused. Goats, pigs, rats....have been removed from islands where they have devastated the native life.
It's interesting that there are some non-invaded areas that we discourage the presence of homo sapiens because we are also an introduced species that change everything we touch. We brought along all kinds of non-natives wherever we go. It may be us tracking the white nose bat disease into caves we like to explore, dumping the unwanted goldfish in the lakes, introducing toads to fight insect problems that become problems themselves or planting a pretty flower in your yard that becomes Scotch Broom covering the hillsides......
If this doesn't happen and that doesn't happen and this doesn't happen and this doesn't happen... it should be successful.
Round up Riki Tiki Tavi and his gang, and very soon they'll be very overweight from all that snake.
Mongoose were introduced to Hawaii to catch the rats. If I remember right the rats are night time foragers and the mongoose day time foragers. A problem getting one to eat the other when they're out and about at different schedules. I'm wondering if Guam tried the same thing for snakes.
We by our nature are the cause of the change of nature, yeah you get the point, it's convoluted--we're having to clean up the messes we didn't intend to make as we discover what they are and how each strand in the web connects to the others. For better and worse we will grope along dealing with it.
Here we go again.....Bring in something non-native with no natural predators and they soon be looking to put something else in to kill them.
drone practice area if u can hit a snake in a tree u can hit a terrorist hiding under a tree
I'm not sure this plan will work. The brown tree snake finds its pray by sensing its body heat. Dead mice are quite cold and will probably end up on the ground. Is there a plan "B"?
article said the snake is not particular what it eats including already deceased animals you have more info please share
wonder if it will work on redneck gun totin wannabe gangsta
Only if they server it at Burger King.
maybe it should be tested on inner city welfare collectin', crack smokin', drug dealin', human traffikin', murderin', gun totin, real gangtsas, before you try it on a few rednecks!
Sounds like the typical human last ditch effort to cure a problem that humans created. These last ditch efforts usually have worse unseen problems that arise afterwards! Humans are actually the problem!
Air drop Tacos on the border?
That's funny!! LOL!!!
Why, are you trying to attract more illegals! Advertising of freebies already accomplishes that!
Weird, I lived in Guam in the early 80s and it was my understanding that there were no snakes. But there definitely are hardly any birds - the only place I remember seeing any was on the rocks out on the reefs. There is also a type of large monitor lizard that lives there.
But the article said that the snakes arrived shortly after WWII.....and you saw no snakes in the 1980's?? Odd.
Might be an ideal strategy to kill of those pythons in Florida.
Now if we could use a similar strategy in the hood with gangsta rappers... Maybe toxic KFC or Burger King...
Churches Chicken is still their favorite. Remember a few years back when the black community sued Churches in Richmond Calif. for putting salt peter in all the food. They stated that Churches was doing it to quail the population of blacks! It was total BS, but they got free chicken for months over the deal! LMAO!
Max, we get rid of the snakes in DC, by dropping about 100 tons of dead mice laced with cyanide on the capitol. And not a bad idea for every state capitol too. What's worse than a politician? Umm... Hmm.. well... I guess, I don't know!
Answer... A liberal Democrat on Welfare!
Is there anything we can do with the snake we have in Washington! Their seem to nothing we can do with the Trillions they are costing us. hmmm maybe we can solve the problem with JOB! JOB! JOBS!
Won't work!....Snakes do NOT! eat dead things, they rot in their gut and cause them to die.
But that is just like the Gov. spend money before knowing all the facts, they would have better success putting the money in a bag and beating the snakes over the head with it.
Where is Saint Patrick when he is really needed; Guam is an Island after all.
Then again, "Fugget about it"; we don't need anymore North/South squabbles.
A recent article showed Marines drinking Cobra Blood; why can't they do the same on Guam? Bloody Marys anyone?
I was stationed in Guam. Once a brown tree snake disabled my vehicle (aka Guam bomb) when it crawled into the engine compartment. It was really messy. The "brownies" are everywhere. On another note the diving and fishing in Guam was spectacular. Of course that was 15 years ago.
If this works. It's gonna take a long time to complete/ If completion is even possible. At any rate, It's gonna stink to high heavens for a long time to come on Guam. dead snakes stink something fierce.
like snakes stink too
pain killer is probably opium. but I'm not sure all snakes will eat an already dead animal.
Just a correction. Someone should do their research...acetaminophen is NOT harmless to humans. Perhaps the dose they're planning on using isn't (Idk), but you can't say blindly that acetaminophen is harmless to humans, especially when there are loads of people, albeit stupid ones, that don't read instructions on medication labels for proper dosage.
Wow, what a great idea. Im sure nothing else will eat the mice or the dead snakes...Real smart!
If they put poison in the weed all your children would be dead...
I guess people don't READ much! I could of sworn that the article said that the Mice were DEAD!! That they were going to drop "Dead Pain Killer Laced Mice" on the Island..... That the Brown Snake prefers to eat another animal's kill.....
Acetaminophen is not only Deadly to the Brown Snake, it is also Deadly to other animals as well!! So, the Dropping of Dead Pain Killer Laced Mice will also cause the Death of all other Mouse eating animals that also is "Allergic or Sensitive" to "Tylenol"!
Sounds to me that Scientists didn't really THINK this through clearly!!!