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Fluoride
Trad climber
West Los Angeles, CA
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Aug 28, 2012 - 03:20pm PT
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Or the bears develop a taste for feral cats instead of grocery food.
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Capt.
climber
some eastside hovel
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Aug 28, 2012 - 04:28pm PT
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^^^ Good one ^^^
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Kenygl
Trad climber
Salt Lake City
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Aug 28, 2012 - 04:34pm PT
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I won't tell you how we entertained ourselves with a bucket, a ramp and some peanut butter while an employee in Toulumne so many years ago. Let's just say there were a LOT of drowned rodents.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 28, 2012 - 04:41pm PT
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MORE SNAKES!
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 28, 2012 - 05:21pm PT
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Please play nice - Werner and Merry have a cat. Think of its feelings.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Aug 28, 2012 - 05:30pm PT
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You can have your mice,
I'll keep my rats and count my blessings.
Rats have been known to spread The Plague, but no one's died from it lately, at least around here.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 28, 2012 - 05:33pm PT
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Don't your dobies, aided perhaps by stealth aerial surveillance, took care of the rats for you?
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Aug 28, 2012 - 05:35pm PT
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Chaz, I have a Rat Zapper here at my desk and the Rats can step across the zap pad and eat the bait without getting zapped. So, I tilted the entrance up quite aways and Zap I got the bugger after he'd been eating the bait for along time! Rat's are smart!
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Aug 28, 2012 - 06:26pm PT
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Anders,
The dogs do take care of the rats, even the zapped rats. Closest dog when the zapped rat is discovered gets a nice, fresh rat for lunch.
The Doberman makes a note of where the zapper is placed, and she checks herself. She could just look to see if the light is flashing, or not. It'd save her sticking her face in it.
Wonderful tool, huh Radish.
I got the base model. It flashes a red LED when it's triggered. For a few more bucks, they have one that will call your cell phone, text you, or send you an e-mail when it zaps a rat.
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Mtbphoto
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, Ca
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Aug 28, 2012 - 07:03pm PT
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I worked in one of the high camps in the Tuolumne backcountry last summer. Ever other day we put on our face masks and gloves and sprayed some kind of bleach/chemical mix on all around the tents on the edges and the dining room sides, inside and out I think. We also had to learn about the virus in employee training.
I wonder if they had the same procedures down in the valley?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:14pm PT
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What is the rodent density in the human-occupied areas of Yosemite, and what is the rodent density in similar areas that aren't occupied by human development and activities, apart perhaps from trails? It seems probable that the rodent density is much higher in areas with high human activitiy, especially where food sources are available.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:18pm PT
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You're probably right.
Besides providing food for the critters - unwittingly, usually - humans scare away or kill the predators.
To borrow from Piton Ron, it's a Woodstock for mice.
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Radish
Trad climber
SeKi, California
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Aug 30, 2012 - 07:11pm PT
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FRESNO, Calif. -- More than 90 cabins in Yosemite National Park are closed indefinitely after the site was found to be at the center of a mouse-borne virus that has been blamed for the deaths of two people, officials said Thursday.
Park officials said the double-walled design of the 91 cabins that were closed Tuesday made it easy for mice to nest between the walls. The disease is carried in the feces, urine and saliva of deer mice and other rodents.
Over the past three weeks, two people have died of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome after staying in one of the so-called "Signature" cabins at Curry Village in Yosemite Valley. Another person is confirmed ill and one more likely has the virus that has killed 36 percent of the people it infects.
Mike Gauthier, Yosemite chief of staff, said the design of the luxury cabins that are new to the park allowed for rodent infestation.
"We just weren't aware that design would lead to it," he said.
The illness begins as flu-like symptoms but can quickly affect the lungs. It can take up to six weeks to incubate. All four people who fell ill stayed in the tent cabins in June, and warnings have gone out to visitors who stayed in Curry Village in June, July or August.
The hantavirus outbreak occurred despite efforts by park officials to step up protection efforts last April. A 2010 report from the California Department of Public Health warned park officials that rodent inspection efforts should be increased after a visitor to the Tuolumne Meadows area of the park fell ill.
The new hantavirus policy, enacted April 25, was designed to provide a safe place, "free from recognized hazards that may cause serious physical harm or death."
It came after the state report revealed that 18 percent of mice trapped for testing at various locations around the park were positive for hantavirus. The report said park officials should take steps to prevent mice from entering areas where people sleep.
"Inspections for rodent infestations and appropriate exclusion efforts, particularly for buildings where people sleep, should be enhanced," it said.
"We worked with Yosemite to evaluate risk and make recommendations to reduce the possibility of transmission to people," added Vicki Kramer, chief of the vector borne disease section of the health department. "That included reducing the number of mice, and excluding them from structures."
In 2009, the park installed the 91 new, higher-end cabins to replace some that had been closed or damaged after parts of Curry Village, which sits below the 3,000-foot Glacier Point promontory, were determined to be in a rock-fall hazard zone.
The new cabins have canvas exteriors and drywall or plywood inside, with insulation in between. Park officials found this week when they tried to shore up some of the cabins that mice had built nests in the walls.
The deer mice most prone to carrying the virus can squeeze through holes just one-quarter-inch in diameter. They are distinguished from solid-colored house mice by their white bellies and gray and brown bodies.
"Those cabins were all immediately investigated and cleaned when initial reports came out," Gauthier said. "But we want to be extra sure and not take any chances."
Yosemite's hantavirus plan also calls for awareness training of park employees and prescribes protective measures and equipment to reduce exposure.
"That's been a clear part of our messaging. My understanding is we did implement all of the measures of those recommendations," Gauthier said.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/08/30/2970930/more-health-warnings-sent-to-past.html#storylink=cpy
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Aug 30, 2012 - 07:15pm PT
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Could you imagine the world of sh#t the owner of a Motel 6 or a Super 8 would be in if their joints were ran like this? They'd be arrested ( and then deported back to India ).
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nutjob
Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
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Aug 30, 2012 - 07:34pm PT
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Woah, I never knew that an unplanned bivy might actually be LIFE THREATENING!
Maybe tent camping should be banned too? There's mice there.
What about playing in the bushes or touching dirt?
It seems this is pretty bad coverage to give ammunition to the parents who want to keep their kids' hands sanitized whenever they touch anything, to stay in nice civilized cities with manicured curbs and no field where mice might fester left undeveloped.
But maybe they're right?
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Aug 30, 2012 - 08:20pm PT
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I asked Pete Clark, the doc on the other hanta virus thread, about the possibility of hantavirus being found in the feeder mice that I purchase from the pet store for my snake. I knew they aren't deer mice; but it never hurts to ask. His reply was no.
I went to purchase mice Tuesday from one of several locations where they are available and their cages were empty. I went to another; same thing. After 3 attempts I went to a big box pet store and they were out.
This is not typical, I always go on their delivery day. I discovered that all the mice and other rodents had been pulled from the stores in GA on Aug 16th due to an outbreak of Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis (LCMV).
I have always been conscious of washing my hands when feeding my snake. I used to worry that I was washing my hands too much (killing beneficial microorganisms) because I would do it each time I put a mouse in her tank (5-6). Not anymore!
This is from wikipedia explaining LCMV and mice:
LCMV is naturally spread by the common house mouse, Mus musculus.[5] Once infected, these mice can become chronically infected by maintaining virus in their blood and/or persistently shedding virus in their urine. Chronically infected female mice usually transmit infection to their offspring (vertical transmission), which in turn become chronically infected. Other modes of mouse-to-mouse transmission include nasal secretions, milk from infected dams, bites, and during social grooming within mouse communities. Airborne transmission also occurs.[6]
The virus seems to be relatively resistant to drying and therefore humans can become infected by inhaling infectious aerosolized particles of rodent urine, feces, or saliva, by ingesting food contaminated with virus, by contamination of mucus membranes with infected body fluids, or by directly exposing cuts or other open wounds to virus-infected blood. The only documented cases of transmission from animals have occurred between humans and mice or hamsters.
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ms55401
Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
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Aug 30, 2012 - 10:09pm PT
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if the park were closed to automobiles
no one would have died
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throwpie
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Aug 30, 2012 - 10:20pm PT
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When a chunk of glacier point lets loose on a nice summer afternoon, mice are going to be the least of everyone's problems.
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rincon
Trad climber
SoCal
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Aug 30, 2012 - 10:36pm PT
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The late Mike Strassman wrote and performed a cool punk song about Hanta virus. I think he knew someone around Mammoth who died from it.
There's a mouse.... IT'S IN MY HOUSE!...
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