Navy tries "mice bombing" Brown Tree Snakes

In a fight that has lasted longer than the war in Afghanistan and Iraq combined, the U.S. Navy is now attempting to bomb Guam's invasive Brown Tree Snake out of existence. They're doing it not with explosives or GPS and laser guided smart weapons, but with dead mice equipped with wings and packed with Tylenol, according to a news story in today's "Stars and Stripes." By airdropping 200 mice equipped with wings, a tail streamer, and a tracking device, the Navy is studying effectiveness before considering a broader implementation.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, started researching ways to poison the tree snakes with commonly available commercial products. They provide a regulatory advantage because they’ve already undergone extensive testing, said Dan Vice, assistant state director of USDA Wildlife Services in Hawaii, Guam and the Pacific Islands. After years of research, they discovered the household pain reliever acetaminophen was a deadly poison to snakes in small doses, and the EPA approved its use in Guam, Vice said.

Sadly, acetaminophen is a deadly poison to many other species as well, and this method of targeting is liable to be found to be too broad for application on a wide scale. Who knows what else will eat the mice and die or how far up the food chain it will go? Hopefully this study will provide that data. To read more check out the article in Stars and Stripes.