E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Michael Spooneybarger / Reuters
Nutria pile up along the shore on Aug. 31 after Hurricane Isaac went through Waveland, Miss.
If there's a silver lining for the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Isaac, it might just be this: the surge of water flushed out, and drowned, thousands of nutria — giant rodents originally from South America that are eating away at coastal marshlands, which act as barriers from storms.
Most of the dead nutria have washed up on beaches in Mississippi's Hancock and Harrison counties.
"Estimates are there will be over 20,000 carcasses," Robbie Wilbur, spokesman for the state's department of environmental quality, told NBC News.
In the short term, that many rotting carcasses is a health hazard.
"It's a terrible smell," David Garcia, mayor of Waveland in Hancock county, told WLOX-TV. "As this heat continues, they're just going to blow up and pop, making it even more of a health hazard."
Crews over the weekend started removing the nutria, aka swamp rats, though it's not an easy task.
"As they're picking them up, they're busting open," Hancock County Supervisor David Yarborough told the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald.
A federal contractor with experience in hazardous waste has been brought in, but even a handful of its workers had quit Sunday morning, the Sun Herald reported.
"There's people who can't take the sight of something like this," Yarborough said. "That's the reason I wouldn't even attempt this with county people. You really should be certified and trained in hazardous waste."
County crews tried to deal with a similar situation after Hurricane Gustav in 2008 "and we had people getting sick; wound up buying everybody's clothes," he added.
Classified as rodents even though they are semi-aquatic, nutria were released in Louisiana and Mississippi back in the 1930s by fur trappers looking for new stock. Populations were kept in check as long as fur prices were good, but a collapse in the 1980s led to a collapse in trapping and a population now estimated at several million.
As a result, nutria are "one of the Gulf South’s most notorious invasive species, wreaking ecological havoc on native wetland vegetation and contributing to coastal erosion problems," Mississippi's Department of Environmental Quality said in its plan for dealing with invasives.
The erosion is done by nutria "digging into thin soils and eating roots of marsh vegetation," the department states. "As the vegetation dies, the fine-grained, denuded soils become more vulnerable to erosion, eventually forming expanding holes in the marsh called 'eat-outs'."
The species is also a speedy breeder: nutria reach sexual maturity at just four months old, and females are able to breed within 48 hours of giving birth to a litter.
Back along the beaches, the thousands of nutria carcasses are being taken to a nearby landfill, while those in areas away from the public will be left there.
"We're letting mother nature take care of those," Chad Lafontaine, with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, told the Sun Herald.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Fire in California's San Gabriel Mountains burns for third day
- Isaac's remnants bring torrential rain to East Coast
- Closing arguments begin in Drew Peterson trial
- Russell Crowe gets lost kayaking off Long Island
- Hundreds take part in 'March on Wall Street South' in Charlotte
- Video: Recipes revealed for White House's homebrewed beers
Leave a Comment:
they should get state inmates out there cleaning it up ! save on taxpayer moneys!!!!!
ld love to see that they would be swearing off crime forever:)
Man, that's "cruel and unusual punishment". The inmates would riot...............
Seriously, if there were a $10.00 bounty, I guarantee the population would be under control within a year or two. The 20 to 30 million dollars paid out on the bounties would be way cheaper than the expense of repairing the damage caused by them.
I see a spread of E Coli,they can harbor fleas which can harbor rabies,as well as hanta virus and salmonella.I think that this could evolve into something much more serious,loose dog finds dead nutria,infected dog finds other dogs/cats they in turn find us. oh and by the way that's how the plague was introduced to people,rats with fleas.hmm
Hanta comes from mouse and rat droppings that dry out and blow around. Nothing dries out in the marsh except the grass. Hanta is a non-issue when it comes to nutria, or "neutrals" as some of the more backwater folk around here say. That being said, shooting invasive species is fun and rewarding as a passtime, lol.
sorry ,about the hanta,but I still feel that with the effects of the hurricane and the coming heat we might see something emerge from this,and it might make Hanta look pretty tame in comparison,armidillos carry leprosy naturally,what do these critters carry?
Where's Mike Rowe? He loves "Dirty Jobs!"
That's an episode I would watch!
We have nutria all over the South, everywhere there's swamp, and they've been where I am since the '60s. As far as I can tell the wetlands are pretty healthy here. They're an ugly-ass animal, but they're pretty fun to shoot, and the fur is similar to beaver. Anyone for a faux beaver top hat?
Too bad I didn't see Dick Cheney and Tiger Woods lying there dead among them.
Looking at the photos of the dead and bloated Nutria, they kind of look like the "Montauk Monster" (you know, if the face, hands and feet rotted away). Have to be WAY out of it's territory, though.
I do not think there are any pythons in Mississippi. Please do not give the politicians of Mississippi any ideas. Nutria also compete against native beavers for habbitat. The U.S. should ban the importation of any exotic animal and any nonnative animal should be neutered so they could not reproduce.
You know, I think the problem is that the nutria are destoying the vegetation, not making love to it.
Humans are so good at hunting things to extinction. This should be no problem to get rid of now. Put a bounty of the rest of them.
They're not very aquatic if they drowned, are they? I have a flash for you, NBC, nutria are not aquatic. Whales, dolphins, seals, etc.. are aquatic. Nutria are land animals, who happen to swim well, except, apparently, in turbulent waters caused by a hurricane.
Wow, look at all those democrats that jumped off the sinking Obama ship.
Typical Repugnant remark. Real class.
Yeah, like CozyTrash's comment -- he wishes Dick Cheney and Tiger Woods were laying there dead among them. I guess if dmallet's comment is "real class" then what is CozyTrash's comment?... Oh that's right... he's a liberal... then wishing death on someone is condoned and even celebrated.
CozyTrash's remark is low class, too, but with a difference. It is directed at an evil individual who is responsible for murder, torture, and subverting the US Constitution. Cheney should be dead. He got a transplant that he didn't deserve, costing another recipient his or her life. He should be dead, and that death should have happened in a prison cell in the Hague. You can take your phony right wing outrage and run along now.
Not buying it, Michael. Not buying your sad defense for the indefensible. Such vitriol. Such hate you have. Such a higher level of decency and morality. Seems the two go hand-in-hand with you "tolerant" lefties.
If subverting the constitution were an argument for death the cemeteries would be stacked high and deep with executed politicians, not the least being your demigod Obama.
Are you now the arbiter of death and who deserves it? How about celebrities like David Crosby. He killed his liver with drugs and booze but he got a transplant... I know there were younger, more innocent people... plenty of children... who were more deserving. Be careful making determinations on who should live and who should die... one day it may be your turn.
But you didn't address Tiger Woods now, did you? What would be your reasoning for wishing his death? His color? His wealth? (Of course there are many wealthy liberals and black celebrities, so let's leave that option alone). Perhaps his womanizing? Besides being nobody's business, what sane person would want him lying dead next to the bogeyman on the beach? What's your answer to that, you sanctimonious self-righteous cretin?
So again I put it to you, how can you justify that dmallett's comment is anywhere nearly as offensive as CozyTrash's. It's not even in the same ballpark. Ah, don't bother... there's nothing you could say at this point.
And believe me, my outrage at hateful hypocrites like you is far surpassed by my pity. You can be sure I won't be running along any time soon.
Another stupid rant. Whatever. Blah blah.
Only 20K dead after a storm like that!! It just goes to show you that the old adages are somewhat based in truth. The only living things to survive catastrophic, apocalyptic events, whether man-made or natural, will in fact be: rats, cockroaches, and politicians!
LOL.............Good one , Robert
Just another fine example of how man has screwed up this planet. Lets bring in a non-native species so we can cash in on some fur. GREED and $$$...typical.
Who sells rat fir coats and hats?
A similar thing was done in NJ with Canadian Geese. They brought them in and bred them to raise revenue for hunting permits, but they ended up finding out that they don't have a very good meat and no one wanted to. Instead NJ and its surrounding states ended up with a ton of geese eating beneficial insects and ruining water and vegetation with their toxic feces.
Did I mention that they made it illegal to shoot them outside of hunting season? Something like a $1000 fine.
Have you considered that Man is the only truly "non-native" species? In that sense it's only natural that he would have unexpected or unwanted impacts on the native environment. So much so that his impact has become the natural order of things. Whatever Man touches he changes, for good or for bad.
I thought this was an article about the start of the DNC!
It is PETA'S fault.
Looking at the photos of the dead and bloated Nutria, I'm reminded of the "Montauk Monster." You know, after the face and paws have rotted away. 'Course it would have been way off from it's territory.
Just bring in some Cajuns from SE Louisiana...they will take care of the carcasass for ya. They eat those things.
Not when they are rotten and bloated. Sheesh.
I thought the storm wash up all the rats, where is Romney and Ryan.
Don't you just love when someone brings something here from somewhere else and it wrecks the place for everybody. Recently a woman in Kentucky was bitten by a Scorpion from Mexico. I guess it came in on the wal-mart boxes she was in a wal-mart when she got bitten. Them we had some stupid azz world economy azzhole carry the asian beetles back here and they have no natural preditor in the U.S. and they are running people out of their homes. They are discusting stink bugs all thanks to some azz hole in Pittsburgh going to asia to sell American jobs I guess. The vines growing all over the southeast all the way to Kentucky, you guessed it carried here years ago. Now the 'RATS' in Waveland, Miss taking over for what some azzholes fur trade 80 years ago. we need the Africanized Honey Bees to finish off the rest of us. Thanks alot globe trotters.
In regards to the Japanese (Asian) beetle, apparently they do have a predator here in the US. I live in California and my father found this out within the last few months. Blue Jays have begun snatching some of the Japanese beetles off the fruit trees he has in his backyard and they've been developing a taste for them. So he's been putting food out there that attracts the blue jays so they will take care of the beetles.
Don't forget the pythons in the Everglades. They're eating everything in sight.
I'll GAAARRONTEE.
Why aren't all of our Boa Constrictors and Pythons eating them.
Well, first of all, these snakes don't exist in south Louisiana, they are an invasive species in south Florida. The winters are just a little too cold still in Louisiana, at least for now. I guess geography wasn't your best subject in school.
Don't forget the pythons in the Everglades. They're eating everything in sight. I'd bet if you moved a few dozen to LA. they'd adapt to the climate just fine and help with the nutria problem.
Dear Friends:
Children of all ages, what is the science term for when nature thins out the numbers of species by natural means? This is an example of this at best? Ask your teachers or adults and or discuss.
I have to tell you, I had not seen these species before and was not familiar with the name nutria. However when my eyes set upon this photo, they opened wide and big and my hand went right to and over my mouth! Oh My God! How fearful to see these creatures and so many and so big? Do they bite humans! Especially with Halloween coming! Scary stuff! Looks like something out of the movies.
I suppose you are laughing at me down in Mississippi! But they do look awfully big!
God Bless! Amen.
Or ... are they GOP Delegates?
Awesome! 20,000 new 0bama voters!
Yep. Dead or alive.
They're looking for their master (baiter) Willard.
Phlemming...
LOL, Willard was a pretty weird rat movie... the real one is a bit scarier.
Peace~
No Bathing Allowed,
Cripes ... just envisioning thousands of bloated rat carcasses on the beach stenched up by the heat and 'exploding' when handled during disposal is an extremely gross exercise. Good thing I'd already had lunch awhile ago ...
Peace~