Thousands of Dead Mice Parachuted Into Guam

Alyssa Danigelis, Discovery News | December 05, 2013 09:28am ET

Like a Disney movie gone horribly wrong, the U.S. Department of Agriculture just airdropped 2,000 mice attached to tiny cardboard parachutes into Guam. The mice are dead and contain a key ingredient: painkillers. The objective: bring down invasive brown tree snakes that have all but taken over.

Brown tree snakes have been a scourge of the U.S. territory since arriving there during the 1940s to 1950s, probably on cargo ships. They snack on native birds and lizards, and have caused several species to go extinct. They also mess with electric substations, triggering annual power outages, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Snake Island To Be 'Bombed' With Poison Mice

Guam will be laced with poison mice carcasses to kill snakes that have been biting islanders and knocking out power lines.

The US is to bomb the tiny territory of Guam with dead mice laced with painkiller in an attempt to kill off the brown tree snakes that have taken over the island.

The reptiles, which can grow to be more than 10ft (3m), have caused misery on the territory for 60 years, since they were unwittingly introduced by US military ships after World War Two.

Now there are serious fears they could slither on to planes at the US military base and hitch a lift to Hawaii, where they would decimate the island's wildlife.

As a result, US government scientists are to drop the poison mice near Guam's sprawling Andersen Air Force Base, which is surrounded by heavy foliage and could offer the snakes a potential ticket off the island.

Scientists calculate there may be two million of the reptiles on Guam, killing wildlife, biting residents and even knocking out electricity by slithering on to power lines.

Continued:  http://news.sky.com/story/1055575/snake-island-to-be-bombed-with-poison-mice