• Toxic mice airdrop aims to wipe out Guam's venomous snakes

    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.

    By Eric Talmadge, The Associated Press

    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. 

    Related:

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  • Two dead after man drives into crowd of tourists on Guam, then attacks with knife

    KUAM-TV

    Chad Ryan Desoto, 21, was held on $2 million bail on multiple murder and assault charges in the attack Tuesday, Feb. 12.

    By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

    Two Japanese women were killed and 12 other people were injured when a man drove his car into a crowd in the center of Guam's tourist district and then began stabbing people at random, police said.

    Court documents allege that Chad Ryan Desoto, 21, of Tamuning told police that he was intent on "hurting as many people with his vehicle initially and subsequently with his knife" in the attack late Tuesday in Tumong Bay — a major tourist attraction on the west coast of the Pacific island, which is a U.S. territory.

    Desoto was held on $2 million bail Wednesday after a hearing on two counts of aggravated murder and nine other felony charges. 

    All of the 14 victims but one were believed to be Japanese tourists, NBC station KUAM reported. The other was a young woman who was a high school classmate of Desoto's, police said.

    The Japanese Foreign Ministry identified the dead as Rie Sugiyama, 29, and Kazuko Uehara, 81, who were stabbed. Other stabbing victims included an 8-month-old Japanese boy. 

    Court documents allege that Desoto plowed through the crowd onto a sidewalk before he crashed into a store in the same complex as the famous beachside Outrigger Guam Resort. He then got out and began stabbing people randomly, authorities said in the documents.

    Witnesses described a surreal scene like something in an action movie.


    A.J. Smith, a Tamuning ophthalmologist, told The Pacific Daily News that about 30 seconds after the car crashed into the store, the driver jumped out with two or three knives and attacked the crowd.

    "Everybody that was in the immediate area froze. Those of us farther back, we ran," Smith said. "We were so freaked out."

    Kevin Quinata, who had just reported for work at the resort hotel, told KUAM: "There was blood already all over the people, so I ran and got some towels and ran back out. By the time I came back out, they had already subdued him, and it was ugly."

    Guam Memorial Hospital cleared its emergency room for the influx of patients and put out a call for supplies Tuesday night, Joseph Verga, the hospital's chief executive, told KUAM. Japanese translators were brought in to help doctors communicate with the patients.

    The Guam Visitors Bureau called an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss the potential impact to Guam's tourist industry, which generates $1.35 billion a year, making it the island's largest source of non-government revenue, according to the latest figures from the Guam Economic Development Authority.

    "It's particularly hard-hitting because Guam is actually well-known as perhaps the safest destination in the entire region," Mark Baldyga, chairman of the visitors bureau, told reporters Wednesday.

    Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo also sought to allay safety concerns, telling reporters that he had been in communication with the Japanese consulate and issuing a statement that said, "Guam values its long-term relationship with the Japanese people and we promise you that we are committed to ensuring the safety of all visitors."

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