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Govt To Bomb Guam With Frozen Mice To Kill Snakes
rhettb writes "In a spectacularly creative effort to rid Guam of the brown tree snake, an invasive species which has ravaged local wildlife and angered local residents, the US Department of Agriculture is planning to 'bomb' the island's rainforests with dead frozen mice laced with acetaminophen. While it might not seem difficult to purge an island of snakes, the snake's habit of dwelling high in the rainforest canopy has so far thwarted efforts to rid the island of the pest. Eradicating the snake is a priority because it triggers more than 100 power outages a year at a cost of $1-4 million and has driven at least 6 local bird species to extinction."
They dropped the gorillas to stomp the lions, the dropped the lions to hunt the dogs, the dropped the dogs to chase the cats, they dropped the cats to catch the mice, the dropped the mice to kill the snakes, but I don't know why they swallowed that fly.
And have a headache, just grab the nearest dead frozen mouse.
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
Just spread some rumour to the Chinese that the rare "Guam strain" is good for erectile dysfunction, "general health" or whatever, and it'll soon be close enough to extinction. ;).
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
It takes >4 grams/day to overdose. It's far from "ridiculously easy". You can have 8 extra-strength Tylenol in a day and still be okay. /pharmicist
Gone!
I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking island!
if you drink more 3 drinks a day, the overdose threshold can be as high as 6grams
since contrary to the popular belief, alcohol is actually protective in case of acetaminophen poisoning, since the P450 enzyme favour ethanol to acetaminophen so there is less N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine(the bad metabolite of Tylenol that fuck up your liver) produced, you can read more int he Merck manual
Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
Probably not. The snake will die after its liver wears itself out breaking down the Acetaminophen. All that will be left in the snake is a worn-out liver and non-toxic Acetaminophen metabolites.
Actually, acetaminophen is not toxic, but one of its metabolites, NAPQI (N-acetyl-p-benzo-quinone imine) is the one that does the damage by depleting the body's supply of glutathione which is a necessary chemical for many liver reactions. The rapid depletion of glutathione causes liver cells to become exposed to damage from free radicals and other, regular body toxins that would normally be metabolized. This is why acetaminophen toxicity is characteristic for causing centri-lobular necrosis - cells closest to the branch of the portal vein (And hence exposed to the highest concentrations of Acetaminophen-->NAPQI) tend to die first, cells further away tend to hang on to greater supplies of glutathione and survive to process the remaining NAPQI.
Since I'm a medical doctor and not a vet I am unaware as to the specific toxicity mechanism in cats and snakes, but it probably also has to do with this toxic NAPQI metabolite.
Insofar as your argument I would venture that the dead snakes would be full of NAPQI, an unhealthy surprise for any critter eating them that was unable to metabolize this chemical.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Balanced eco-system + imported snake = Threatened wildlife
Balanced eco-system + imported snake + poison = Balanced eco-system - anything that eats dead mice
It's like throwing a molotov-cocktail in a car to remove tissues after you had a severe cold. You never know what the collateral damage might be.