Snakes are sly creatures, and if all the recent news about serpents sneaking onto planes has got you rattled, there’s no need to fret. Guam’s got you covered.
Brown tree snakes, brought to the country during WWII on military vessels, have become a major pest in the Pacific U.S. territory. They’ve killed off so many native bird populations that wildlife officials have decided enough is enough.
In order to stop their overpopulation and to prevent the snakes from stowing away on aircrafts and hitching rides to neighboring islands, Guam is going to drop 2,000 dead baby mice filled with acetaminophen from helicopters onto its jungles below.
Turns out the over-the-counter pain reliever is actually quite lethal to snakes but not to other creatures. And to make sure no one else is harmed in the process, each stuffed mouse will be attached to a strand of ribbon connected to two pieces of cardboard. The idea is that the loop will catch in the trees and never make it to the ground.
The aerial assault is set to take place in March or April, and though it won’t kill off the brown snake population altogether, it will certainly curtail it.
