by Al Lewis
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Commentary: Oh, serpents! Thought you said it had servants
They say there are snake pits on Wall Street.
Chase has learned there are snake pits on Main Street too.
Last year, the J.P. Morgan Chase banking unit foreclosed on a home near Rexburg, Idaho, that is infested with garter snakes.
They slide through the yard, the crawl space, the walls, the ceilings, even across the floors. Sure, they're harmless, but there are perhaps thousands of them. They give off malodorous secretions when alarmed, and can even leave the well water tasting a bit like the way they smell.
Two families have fled the house in scenes reminiscent of horror-film classics. One turned to a local TV station in 2006 to document the infestation, complaining of not being able to sleep at night. The video is still available on YouTube and is doing absolutely nothing for sales. Watch the video on snakes in the house.
The next family appeared on TV's "Animal Planet" earlier this year. They said they were told the previous owners came up with the snake story to explain why they stopped paying their mortgage. But, it turns out, the story was true.
Search "Idaho snake house" on the Internet and several intriguing posts emerge. Zillow.com offers a sales description that mentions "a large kitchen with center island," but nothing about snakes on the kitchen floor.
The house, built in 1920 and remodeled about five years ago, has somehow become a hibernaculum, where snakes gather en masse for winter. It's so famously infested that Chase has taken it off the market.
Earlier this year, the five-bedroom home at 675 W. 5000 North was listed for $109,200. That's about $66,000 below its market value. But somehow there were no takers, even in a region known for its Snake River.
Chase is now in the unenviable position of having to be delicate with snakes that continue to live in the home despite a defaulted mortgage. Once a house has been featured on "Animal Planet," you can't just burn it down or otherwise slaughter its reptilian residents. You have to be nice to snakes. It's just good business.
"We have contracted to have the snakes trapped and released," said Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot, a Chase spokeswoman in Seattle.
"We plan to seal the foundation and install a barrier around the foundation to help prevent future access," she said. "A report will be issued by the contractor to be provided to any potential buyers."
Possible buyers might include some guy with a flute and a turban, or maybe a slippery salesman looking to replenish his line of proprietary oil. More likely, though, Chase is going to be stuck with the Idaho snake house for a long time.
Protesters recently appeared in Ohio at the annual meeting of Chase's parent, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., to complain about the company's foreclosure practices. There have been similar protests at all major banks, as if these institutions actually love foreclosing on homes.
Banks currently have about 1.9 million homes on their books or in foreclosure proceedings, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate market researcher.
Imagine all the disrepair, the pet-fouled carpets, the mold, the bugs, the rats and the snakes.
Foreclosures have slowed in recent months, but that trend is largely attributed to legal delays, including banks' dubious use of "robo-signers" on court documents.
Yes, major banks have major problems. But they're still swamped with more foreclosures than they can handle, and Americans are still slithering away from their homes like it's not a snake-like thing to do.
The Mortgage Bankers Association recently reported that about 8.3% of homeowners missed at least one mortgage payment in the January-March quarter. In a healthy market, that figure holds at about 1.1%.
Foreclosed homes made up 28% of all U.S. home sales in the quarter, according to RealtyTrac. And 2011 is on track to be another record year, with about 1.2 million foreclosures expected. This dashes any hope for a housing market recovery any time soon.
The snakes are just starting to awaken at the Idaho snake house. Chase can't chase them out just yet.
"Hopefully, in a few weeks," Donahoe-Wilmot said. "The contractor feels there is not yet enough activity to perform the capture."
http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/112850/idaho-foreclosure-snake-home
Showing posts with label infestation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label infestation. Show all posts
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Ermine moth larvae in Bradford's Shipley Hall Fields
17 May 2011
A Yorkshire urban park has been infested with thousands of caterpillars, stripping 15 trees of all their leaves.
The caterpillars have been identified as Ermine moth larvae and the normally busy Shipley Hall Fields in Bradford is now empty of people.
The larvae have formed large communal webs covering railings and tree trunks in the small park at Frizinghall.
The infestation is not dangerous, but has been caused by recent warm weather.
The larvae are about an inch long.
Rizwan Malik, a Bradford councillor, said: "It's not a serious situation but obviously is distressing.
"I'd like this to be resolved as soon as possible so at least the park can be used again."
Birds and hedgehogs
Dennis Shipway, Bradford Council's pest control manager, said: "We are going to let nature run its course because the Ermine moth larvae is harmless.
"If we were to spray insecticide it could damage the environment more and pose a risk to residents.
"The trees have been stripped of their leaves and bark, but it is too early to say what will happen to them."
The park contains around 40 trees - 15 have been stripped completely bare.
Leaving the larvae to nature will provide a bounty for the local birds and hedgehogs.
All moths start life as a caterpillar, form a pupa, then emerge as a winged adult.
Over 2,400 species of moth have been recorded in the British Isles.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-13425031
A Yorkshire urban park has been infested with thousands of caterpillars, stripping 15 trees of all their leaves.
The caterpillars have been identified as Ermine moth larvae and the normally busy Shipley Hall Fields in Bradford is now empty of people.
The larvae have formed large communal webs covering railings and tree trunks in the small park at Frizinghall.
The infestation is not dangerous, but has been caused by recent warm weather.
The larvae are about an inch long.
Rizwan Malik, a Bradford councillor, said: "It's not a serious situation but obviously is distressing.
"I'd like this to be resolved as soon as possible so at least the park can be used again."
Birds and hedgehogs
Dennis Shipway, Bradford Council's pest control manager, said: "We are going to let nature run its course because the Ermine moth larvae is harmless.
"If we were to spray insecticide it could damage the environment more and pose a risk to residents.
"The trees have been stripped of their leaves and bark, but it is too early to say what will happen to them."
The park contains around 40 trees - 15 have been stripped completely bare.
Leaving the larvae to nature will provide a bounty for the local birds and hedgehogs.
All moths start life as a caterpillar, form a pupa, then emerge as a winged adult.
Over 2,400 species of moth have been recorded in the British Isles.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-13425031
Monday, November 15, 2010
Tiny southern pine beetles chew through 14,000 acres of N.J. pinelands
While only an eighth of an inch in size, the tiny southern pine beetle has taken a huge bite out of New Jersey’s treasured pinelands this year — 14,000 acres and counting, according to authorities.
The devastation to South Jersey’s rare piney habitat is about seven to 10 times that of any other year since the tiny bug first emerged as a pest in the Garden State in 2001. Prior to its arrival in the state earlier this decade, the beetle, also known as the southern pine bark beetle, had been spotted only once before, in 1938.
"We’ve never seen any documentation of past infestations of southern pine beetles involving so many thousands of acres. This is pretty new to us. They are all over the place, from Cape May through Atlantic County, which has the bulk of them. They also have two locations as far north as Monmouth County," said David Finley of the New Jersey Forest Service.
Past outbreaks in 2002 and 2003 covered 1,270 acres and 2,508 acres respectively in South Jersey, while more than 93,000 multiple-tree infestations were detected in 2002 in the southern United States, where the bug has been traditionally considered the region’s worst pine-killer. The beetle’s move north has foresters fearing multiple threats to the rare habitat of South Jersey, where the 1.1 million-acre Pinelands Natural Reserve was preserved by Congress in 1978.
The unique pine and sandy habitat is home to 43 state-threatened or endangered wildlife species.
"One issue is that the southern pine beetle kills trees pretty quickly, leaving the fire hazard of standing trees. The fuel loading for forest fires doesn’t end at public lands. The beetles move to private lands too," said James Barresi, a deputy director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
The problem is complex.
The beetle has a traditional role in nature. Along with other native, tree-chewing insects in North America, it joins forest fires in destroying unmanaged, mature tree stands to allow for new, successional forests and offer diverse habitats for a variety of wild creatures. But New Jersey’s forests and ecosystems already are troubled by years of development, pollution, fragmentation and foreign bugs, plants and pathogens destroying the natural balance.
The southern pine beetle, also known as the southern pine bark beetle, is now an unwanted, lethal addition to the assault,
"We live in a different world, now," said Bob Williams, a private forester who documented the beetle’s New Jersey debut nine years ago.
"Where it (the beetle) would normally have a role in nature, it is now killing our best stands of pitch-pine in the lowlands — our biggest, oldest trees that have really just begun to recover from hundreds of years of brutalization by man. These are globally threatened ecosystems we spent millions of dollars to preserve," Williams said.
The southern pine beetle takes on all species of pines, but prefers pitch, shortleaf, pond, and loblolly — all of which cover South Jersey.
There is no spraying program to battle the bug. Foresters said that when a natural predator, the checkered beetle, is not plentiful enough to combat the southern invader, the only way to stop an infestation is by cutting what amounts to fire breaks in the forests.
The bug assault begins with beetle pairs boring into a pine to create a gallery in the inner bark where the female beetle lays its eggs. Larva emerges from the eggs to tunnel further into the soft inner bark and eventually settle in another layer of bark in a pupa stage.
They eventually emerge as adults, chew their way out of the tree and fly off to begin a new assault on a new tree in a cycle that can repeat itself seven times each year. During an infestation, beetles at all different stages of development will be found.
"They can kill a tree pretty much in a matter of a three to four week period, and they also carry blue stain fungus, which clogs the vascular system of a pine tree," said Finley of the state Forest Service.
The killer fungus acts in concert with the beetle by suppressing the "pitch" or the sticky sap a pine tree naturally emits to thwart an insect assault. In fact, beetles prefer to attack trees that are already stressed by another force and unable to mount a defense, said Dr. Ronald Billings, forest pest manager for the Texas Forest Service, which monitors beetle patterns in the United States.
In a report earlier this year, he predicted New Jersey’s outbreak.
"Very dry or very wet conditions, extremes in temperatures and rainfall, all lead to outbreaks. Also large areas of pines that are not managed, such as older stands where the trees are stressed because of overcrowding. The beetles are attracted to stressed stands and once you get a large infestation, they can attack and kill healthy trees," he explained.
New Jersey foresters blame the assault this year on a warm, although snowy winter that was followed by drought conditions. Winter temperatures failed to close in on zero degrees Fahrenheit this past year, as in the outbreak years of 2002 and 2003.
The Texas Forest Service said it knew the New Jersey outbreak was coming. Billings said they placed traps in the spring throughout the bug’s range to capture the southern pine beetle and it’s main predator. Where captured beetles outnumbered their predators, an outbreak was anticipated.
"New Jersey is one of the few places we found beetles, and beetles outnumbering predators this spring," Billings said.
Brian T. Murray/The Star-Ledger
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/tiny_southern_pine_beetles_che.html
The devastation to South Jersey’s rare piney habitat is about seven to 10 times that of any other year since the tiny bug first emerged as a pest in the Garden State in 2001. Prior to its arrival in the state earlier this decade, the beetle, also known as the southern pine bark beetle, had been spotted only once before, in 1938.
"We’ve never seen any documentation of past infestations of southern pine beetles involving so many thousands of acres. This is pretty new to us. They are all over the place, from Cape May through Atlantic County, which has the bulk of them. They also have two locations as far north as Monmouth County," said David Finley of the New Jersey Forest Service.
Past outbreaks in 2002 and 2003 covered 1,270 acres and 2,508 acres respectively in South Jersey, while more than 93,000 multiple-tree infestations were detected in 2002 in the southern United States, where the bug has been traditionally considered the region’s worst pine-killer. The beetle’s move north has foresters fearing multiple threats to the rare habitat of South Jersey, where the 1.1 million-acre Pinelands Natural Reserve was preserved by Congress in 1978.
The unique pine and sandy habitat is home to 43 state-threatened or endangered wildlife species.
"One issue is that the southern pine beetle kills trees pretty quickly, leaving the fire hazard of standing trees. The fuel loading for forest fires doesn’t end at public lands. The beetles move to private lands too," said James Barresi, a deputy director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
The problem is complex.
The beetle has a traditional role in nature. Along with other native, tree-chewing insects in North America, it joins forest fires in destroying unmanaged, mature tree stands to allow for new, successional forests and offer diverse habitats for a variety of wild creatures. But New Jersey’s forests and ecosystems already are troubled by years of development, pollution, fragmentation and foreign bugs, plants and pathogens destroying the natural balance.
The southern pine beetle, also known as the southern pine bark beetle, is now an unwanted, lethal addition to the assault,
"We live in a different world, now," said Bob Williams, a private forester who documented the beetle’s New Jersey debut nine years ago.
"Where it (the beetle) would normally have a role in nature, it is now killing our best stands of pitch-pine in the lowlands — our biggest, oldest trees that have really just begun to recover from hundreds of years of brutalization by man. These are globally threatened ecosystems we spent millions of dollars to preserve," Williams said.
The southern pine beetle takes on all species of pines, but prefers pitch, shortleaf, pond, and loblolly — all of which cover South Jersey.
There is no spraying program to battle the bug. Foresters said that when a natural predator, the checkered beetle, is not plentiful enough to combat the southern invader, the only way to stop an infestation is by cutting what amounts to fire breaks in the forests.
The bug assault begins with beetle pairs boring into a pine to create a gallery in the inner bark where the female beetle lays its eggs. Larva emerges from the eggs to tunnel further into the soft inner bark and eventually settle in another layer of bark in a pupa stage.
They eventually emerge as adults, chew their way out of the tree and fly off to begin a new assault on a new tree in a cycle that can repeat itself seven times each year. During an infestation, beetles at all different stages of development will be found.
"They can kill a tree pretty much in a matter of a three to four week period, and they also carry blue stain fungus, which clogs the vascular system of a pine tree," said Finley of the state Forest Service.
The killer fungus acts in concert with the beetle by suppressing the "pitch" or the sticky sap a pine tree naturally emits to thwart an insect assault. In fact, beetles prefer to attack trees that are already stressed by another force and unable to mount a defense, said Dr. Ronald Billings, forest pest manager for the Texas Forest Service, which monitors beetle patterns in the United States.
In a report earlier this year, he predicted New Jersey’s outbreak.
"Very dry or very wet conditions, extremes in temperatures and rainfall, all lead to outbreaks. Also large areas of pines that are not managed, such as older stands where the trees are stressed because of overcrowding. The beetles are attracted to stressed stands and once you get a large infestation, they can attack and kill healthy trees," he explained.
New Jersey foresters blame the assault this year on a warm, although snowy winter that was followed by drought conditions. Winter temperatures failed to close in on zero degrees Fahrenheit this past year, as in the outbreak years of 2002 and 2003.
The Texas Forest Service said it knew the New Jersey outbreak was coming. Billings said they placed traps in the spring throughout the bug’s range to capture the southern pine beetle and it’s main predator. Where captured beetles outnumbered their predators, an outbreak was anticipated.
"New Jersey is one of the few places we found beetles, and beetles outnumbering predators this spring," Billings said.
Brian T. Murray/The Star-Ledger
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/tiny_southern_pine_beetles_che.html
Tiny southern pine beetles chew through 14,000 acres of N.J. pinelands
While only an eighth of an inch in size, the tiny southern pine beetle has taken a huge bite out of New Jersey’s treasured pinelands this year — 14,000 acres and counting, according to authorities.
The devastation to South Jersey’s rare piney habitat is about seven to 10 times that of any other year since the tiny bug first emerged as a pest in the Garden State in 2001. Prior to its arrival in the state earlier this decade, the beetle, also known as the southern pine bark beetle, had been spotted only once before, in 1938.
"We’ve never seen any documentation of past infestations of southern pine beetles involving so many thousands of acres. This is pretty new to us. They are all over the place, from Cape May through Atlantic County, which has the bulk of them. They also have two locations as far north as Monmouth County," said David Finley of the New Jersey Forest Service.
Past outbreaks in 2002 and 2003 covered 1,270 acres and 2,508 acres respectively in South Jersey, while more than 93,000 multiple-tree infestations were detected in 2002 in the southern United States, where the bug has been traditionally considered the region’s worst pine-killer. The beetle’s move north has foresters fearing multiple threats to the rare habitat of South Jersey, where the 1.1 million-acre Pinelands Natural Reserve was preserved by Congress in 1978.
The unique pine and sandy habitat is home to 43 state-threatened or endangered wildlife species.
"One issue is that the southern pine beetle kills trees pretty quickly, leaving the fire hazard of standing trees. The fuel loading for forest fires doesn’t end at public lands. The beetles move to private lands too," said James Barresi, a deputy director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
The problem is complex.
The beetle has a traditional role in nature. Along with other native, tree-chewing insects in North America, it joins forest fires in destroying unmanaged, mature tree stands to allow for new, successional forests and offer diverse habitats for a variety of wild creatures. But New Jersey’s forests and ecosystems already are troubled by years of development, pollution, fragmentation and foreign bugs, plants and pathogens destroying the natural balance.
The southern pine beetle, also known as the southern pine bark beetle, is now an unwanted, lethal addition to the assault,
"We live in a different world, now," said Bob Williams, a private forester who documented the beetle’s New Jersey debut nine years ago.
"Where it (the beetle) would normally have a role in nature, it is now killing our best stands of pitch-pine in the lowlands — our biggest, oldest trees that have really just begun to recover from hundreds of years of brutalization by man. These are globally threatened ecosystems we spent millions of dollars to preserve," Williams said.
The southern pine beetle takes on all species of pines, but prefers pitch, shortleaf, pond, and loblolly — all of which cover South Jersey.
There is no spraying program to battle the bug. Foresters said that when a natural predator, the checkered beetle, is not plentiful enough to combat the southern invader, the only way to stop an infestation is by cutting what amounts to fire breaks in the forests.
The bug assault begins with beetle pairs boring into a pine to create a gallery in the inner bark where the female beetle lays its eggs. Larva emerges from the eggs to tunnel further into the soft inner bark and eventually settle in another layer of bark in a pupa stage.
They eventually emerge as adults, chew their way out of the tree and fly off to begin a new assault on a new tree in a cycle that can repeat itself seven times each year. During an infestation, beetles at all different stages of development will be found.
"They can kill a tree pretty much in a matter of a three to four week period, and they also carry blue stain fungus, which clogs the vascular system of a pine tree," said Finley of the state Forest Service.
The killer fungus acts in concert with the beetle by suppressing the "pitch" or the sticky sap a pine tree naturally emits to thwart an insect assault. In fact, beetles prefer to attack trees that are already stressed by another force and unable to mount a defense, said Dr. Ronald Billings, forest pest manager for the Texas Forest Service, which monitors beetle patterns in the United States.
In a report earlier this year, he predicted New Jersey’s outbreak.
"Very dry or very wet conditions, extremes in temperatures and rainfall, all lead to outbreaks. Also large areas of pines that are not managed, such as older stands where the trees are stressed because of overcrowding. The beetles are attracted to stressed stands and once you get a large infestation, they can attack and kill healthy trees," he explained.
New Jersey foresters blame the assault this year on a warm, although snowy winter that was followed by drought conditions. Winter temperatures failed to close in on zero degrees Fahrenheit this past year, as in the outbreak years of 2002 and 2003.
The Texas Forest Service said it knew the New Jersey outbreak was coming. Billings said they placed traps in the spring throughout the bug’s range to capture the southern pine beetle and it’s main predator. Where captured beetles outnumbered their predators, an outbreak was anticipated.
"New Jersey is one of the few places we found beetles, and beetles outnumbering predators this spring," Billings said.
Brian T. Murray/The Star-Ledger
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/tiny_southern_pine_beetles_che.html
The devastation to South Jersey’s rare piney habitat is about seven to 10 times that of any other year since the tiny bug first emerged as a pest in the Garden State in 2001. Prior to its arrival in the state earlier this decade, the beetle, also known as the southern pine bark beetle, had been spotted only once before, in 1938.
"We’ve never seen any documentation of past infestations of southern pine beetles involving so many thousands of acres. This is pretty new to us. They are all over the place, from Cape May through Atlantic County, which has the bulk of them. They also have two locations as far north as Monmouth County," said David Finley of the New Jersey Forest Service.
Past outbreaks in 2002 and 2003 covered 1,270 acres and 2,508 acres respectively in South Jersey, while more than 93,000 multiple-tree infestations were detected in 2002 in the southern United States, where the bug has been traditionally considered the region’s worst pine-killer. The beetle’s move north has foresters fearing multiple threats to the rare habitat of South Jersey, where the 1.1 million-acre Pinelands Natural Reserve was preserved by Congress in 1978.
The unique pine and sandy habitat is home to 43 state-threatened or endangered wildlife species.
"One issue is that the southern pine beetle kills trees pretty quickly, leaving the fire hazard of standing trees. The fuel loading for forest fires doesn’t end at public lands. The beetles move to private lands too," said James Barresi, a deputy director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
The problem is complex.
The beetle has a traditional role in nature. Along with other native, tree-chewing insects in North America, it joins forest fires in destroying unmanaged, mature tree stands to allow for new, successional forests and offer diverse habitats for a variety of wild creatures. But New Jersey’s forests and ecosystems already are troubled by years of development, pollution, fragmentation and foreign bugs, plants and pathogens destroying the natural balance.
The southern pine beetle, also known as the southern pine bark beetle, is now an unwanted, lethal addition to the assault,
"We live in a different world, now," said Bob Williams, a private forester who documented the beetle’s New Jersey debut nine years ago.
"Where it (the beetle) would normally have a role in nature, it is now killing our best stands of pitch-pine in the lowlands — our biggest, oldest trees that have really just begun to recover from hundreds of years of brutalization by man. These are globally threatened ecosystems we spent millions of dollars to preserve," Williams said.
The southern pine beetle takes on all species of pines, but prefers pitch, shortleaf, pond, and loblolly — all of which cover South Jersey.
There is no spraying program to battle the bug. Foresters said that when a natural predator, the checkered beetle, is not plentiful enough to combat the southern invader, the only way to stop an infestation is by cutting what amounts to fire breaks in the forests.
The bug assault begins with beetle pairs boring into a pine to create a gallery in the inner bark where the female beetle lays its eggs. Larva emerges from the eggs to tunnel further into the soft inner bark and eventually settle in another layer of bark in a pupa stage.
They eventually emerge as adults, chew their way out of the tree and fly off to begin a new assault on a new tree in a cycle that can repeat itself seven times each year. During an infestation, beetles at all different stages of development will be found.
"They can kill a tree pretty much in a matter of a three to four week period, and they also carry blue stain fungus, which clogs the vascular system of a pine tree," said Finley of the state Forest Service.
The killer fungus acts in concert with the beetle by suppressing the "pitch" or the sticky sap a pine tree naturally emits to thwart an insect assault. In fact, beetles prefer to attack trees that are already stressed by another force and unable to mount a defense, said Dr. Ronald Billings, forest pest manager for the Texas Forest Service, which monitors beetle patterns in the United States.
In a report earlier this year, he predicted New Jersey’s outbreak.
"Very dry or very wet conditions, extremes in temperatures and rainfall, all lead to outbreaks. Also large areas of pines that are not managed, such as older stands where the trees are stressed because of overcrowding. The beetles are attracted to stressed stands and once you get a large infestation, they can attack and kill healthy trees," he explained.
New Jersey foresters blame the assault this year on a warm, although snowy winter that was followed by drought conditions. Winter temperatures failed to close in on zero degrees Fahrenheit this past year, as in the outbreak years of 2002 and 2003.
The Texas Forest Service said it knew the New Jersey outbreak was coming. Billings said they placed traps in the spring throughout the bug’s range to capture the southern pine beetle and it’s main predator. Where captured beetles outnumbered their predators, an outbreak was anticipated.
"New Jersey is one of the few places we found beetles, and beetles outnumbering predators this spring," Billings said.
Brian T. Murray/The Star-Ledger
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/11/tiny_southern_pine_beetles_che.html
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Forest Near Mount Rushmore Suffers Beetle Attack
by Charles Michael Ray
October 6, 2010 from SDPB
The Black Hills of South Dakota are turning brown. Thousands of acres of pine trees in the central part of the hills have been killed by mountain pine beetles, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial is near the center of the epidemic. National Park officials are taking drastic measures to help the forest around Rushmore survive the onslaught. The monument is now in the middle of the biggest thinning operation in its history.
The normally tranquil forest around the monument is being shattered by the sound of chainsaws. Crews of loggers are cutting a lot of pine trees.
"It's a matter of controlling the exponential growth of this pine beetle," says Bruce Weisman, the National Park ranger leading the fight against the insects. "We've seen this explosion and it's coming over the ridgeline directly at us right now."
Crews are cutting down trees below the four faces and feeding them into huge wood chippers. Weisman says to save this forest from destruction, the smaller overgrown pine trees on 500 acres of the park must come down. He says this is about more than beetles. Bug-killed trees are prone to burn, and one lightning strike could start a major wildfire.
"Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [a] catastrophic firestorm would sweep right over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities," he says.
The idea is that thinning out the trees will make the forest healthier. But critics like Brian Brademeyer with the group Friends of the Norbeck say the beetle problem is being overblown to give big timber companies access to adjacent public lands.
"This whole beetle hysteria that dead trees are more fire-prone than green trees, it's all self-serving, logging institution-building. They should just stay in their offices," Brademeyer says.
While some environmentalists are critical of the National Park Service for going too far, other locals say government officials aren't doing enough.
"It's almost like waiting until the horse goes out and then you shut the barn door," says Jack Bradt, who has helped run a wilderness outfitter in the Black Hills since 1977.
Fresh from an afternoon of work on his dude ranch, a bead of sweat lines the brim of Bradt's straw cowboy hat, and his pearl-snap Western shirt is dusty and frayed.
"Essentially everything that I have worked all of my life for is in potential danger because of the situation that ... we've got going here," he says.
Bradt says the thinning now under way at Rushmore should have happened on a wider scale years ago. But the pine beetles and the wildfires that threaten Bradt's livelihood may be linked to climate change: Beetle populations are normally kept in check by very cold winters, and it's believed warmer winters have allowed them to expand.
Millions of acres across the western United States and up into the Canadian Rockies are now infested. Dan Licht, a biologist with the National Park Service, says even with mitigation efforts at places like Rushmore, there is a good deal of uncertainty over what will happen next.
"If climate change does indeed warm up the area, we have warmer winters, the pine beetle infestations could become even worse, and even with our best efforts and our best treatments, we could still have a pine beetle infestation," Licht says.
Logging is not pretty. Big machines are ripping up the forest floor. But park officials in South Dakota stress the urgency. They say to do nothing would increase the risk of a much bigger disaster. For now, the future of the forest around Rushmore hinges on what the beetles do next.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130053576
October 6, 2010 from SDPB
The Black Hills of South Dakota are turning brown. Thousands of acres of pine trees in the central part of the hills have been killed by mountain pine beetles, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial is near the center of the epidemic. National Park officials are taking drastic measures to help the forest around Rushmore survive the onslaught. The monument is now in the middle of the biggest thinning operation in its history.
The normally tranquil forest around the monument is being shattered by the sound of chainsaws. Crews of loggers are cutting a lot of pine trees.
"It's a matter of controlling the exponential growth of this pine beetle," says Bruce Weisman, the National Park ranger leading the fight against the insects. "We've seen this explosion and it's coming over the ridgeline directly at us right now."
Crews are cutting down trees below the four faces and feeding them into huge wood chippers. Weisman says to save this forest from destruction, the smaller overgrown pine trees on 500 acres of the park must come down. He says this is about more than beetles. Bug-killed trees are prone to burn, and one lightning strike could start a major wildfire.
"Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [a] catastrophic firestorm would sweep right over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities," he says.
The idea is that thinning out the trees will make the forest healthier. But critics like Brian Brademeyer with the group Friends of the Norbeck say the beetle problem is being overblown to give big timber companies access to adjacent public lands.
"This whole beetle hysteria that dead trees are more fire-prone than green trees, it's all self-serving, logging institution-building. They should just stay in their offices," Brademeyer says.
While some environmentalists are critical of the National Park Service for going too far, other locals say government officials aren't doing enough.
"It's almost like waiting until the horse goes out and then you shut the barn door," says Jack Bradt, who has helped run a wilderness outfitter in the Black Hills since 1977.
Fresh from an afternoon of work on his dude ranch, a bead of sweat lines the brim of Bradt's straw cowboy hat, and his pearl-snap Western shirt is dusty and frayed.
"Essentially everything that I have worked all of my life for is in potential danger because of the situation that ... we've got going here," he says.
Bradt says the thinning now under way at Rushmore should have happened on a wider scale years ago. But the pine beetles and the wildfires that threaten Bradt's livelihood may be linked to climate change: Beetle populations are normally kept in check by very cold winters, and it's believed warmer winters have allowed them to expand.
Millions of acres across the western United States and up into the Canadian Rockies are now infested. Dan Licht, a biologist with the National Park Service, says even with mitigation efforts at places like Rushmore, there is a good deal of uncertainty over what will happen next.
"If climate change does indeed warm up the area, we have warmer winters, the pine beetle infestations could become even worse, and even with our best efforts and our best treatments, we could still have a pine beetle infestation," Licht says.
Logging is not pretty. Big machines are ripping up the forest floor. But park officials in South Dakota stress the urgency. They say to do nothing would increase the risk of a much bigger disaster. For now, the future of the forest around Rushmore hinges on what the beetles do next.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130053576
Forest Near Mount Rushmore Suffers Beetle Attack
by Charles Michael Ray
October 6, 2010 from SDPB
The Black Hills of South Dakota are turning brown. Thousands of acres of pine trees in the central part of the hills have been killed by mountain pine beetles, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial is near the center of the epidemic. National Park officials are taking drastic measures to help the forest around Rushmore survive the onslaught. The monument is now in the middle of the biggest thinning operation in its history.
The normally tranquil forest around the monument is being shattered by the sound of chainsaws. Crews of loggers are cutting a lot of pine trees.
"It's a matter of controlling the exponential growth of this pine beetle," says Bruce Weisman, the National Park ranger leading the fight against the insects. "We've seen this explosion and it's coming over the ridgeline directly at us right now."
Crews are cutting down trees below the four faces and feeding them into huge wood chippers. Weisman says to save this forest from destruction, the smaller overgrown pine trees on 500 acres of the park must come down. He says this is about more than beetles. Bug-killed trees are prone to burn, and one lightning strike could start a major wildfire.
"Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [a] catastrophic firestorm would sweep right over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities," he says.
The idea is that thinning out the trees will make the forest healthier. But critics like Brian Brademeyer with the group Friends of the Norbeck say the beetle problem is being overblown to give big timber companies access to adjacent public lands.
"This whole beetle hysteria that dead trees are more fire-prone than green trees, it's all self-serving, logging institution-building. They should just stay in their offices," Brademeyer says.
While some environmentalists are critical of the National Park Service for going too far, other locals say government officials aren't doing enough.
"It's almost like waiting until the horse goes out and then you shut the barn door," says Jack Bradt, who has helped run a wilderness outfitter in the Black Hills since 1977.
Fresh from an afternoon of work on his dude ranch, a bead of sweat lines the brim of Bradt's straw cowboy hat, and his pearl-snap Western shirt is dusty and frayed.
"Essentially everything that I have worked all of my life for is in potential danger because of the situation that ... we've got going here," he says.
Bradt says the thinning now under way at Rushmore should have happened on a wider scale years ago. But the pine beetles and the wildfires that threaten Bradt's livelihood may be linked to climate change: Beetle populations are normally kept in check by very cold winters, and it's believed warmer winters have allowed them to expand.
Millions of acres across the western United States and up into the Canadian Rockies are now infested. Dan Licht, a biologist with the National Park Service, says even with mitigation efforts at places like Rushmore, there is a good deal of uncertainty over what will happen next.
"If climate change does indeed warm up the area, we have warmer winters, the pine beetle infestations could become even worse, and even with our best efforts and our best treatments, we could still have a pine beetle infestation," Licht says.
Logging is not pretty. Big machines are ripping up the forest floor. But park officials in South Dakota stress the urgency. They say to do nothing would increase the risk of a much bigger disaster. For now, the future of the forest around Rushmore hinges on what the beetles do next.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130053576
October 6, 2010 from SDPB
The Black Hills of South Dakota are turning brown. Thousands of acres of pine trees in the central part of the hills have been killed by mountain pine beetles, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial is near the center of the epidemic. National Park officials are taking drastic measures to help the forest around Rushmore survive the onslaught. The monument is now in the middle of the biggest thinning operation in its history.
The normally tranquil forest around the monument is being shattered by the sound of chainsaws. Crews of loggers are cutting a lot of pine trees.
"It's a matter of controlling the exponential growth of this pine beetle," says Bruce Weisman, the National Park ranger leading the fight against the insects. "We've seen this explosion and it's coming over the ridgeline directly at us right now."
Crews are cutting down trees below the four faces and feeding them into huge wood chippers. Weisman says to save this forest from destruction, the smaller overgrown pine trees on 500 acres of the park must come down. He says this is about more than beetles. Bug-killed trees are prone to burn, and one lightning strike could start a major wildfire.
"Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [a] catastrophic firestorm would sweep right over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities," he says.
The idea is that thinning out the trees will make the forest healthier. But critics like Brian Brademeyer with the group Friends of the Norbeck say the beetle problem is being overblown to give big timber companies access to adjacent public lands.
"This whole beetle hysteria that dead trees are more fire-prone than green trees, it's all self-serving, logging institution-building. They should just stay in their offices," Brademeyer says.
While some environmentalists are critical of the National Park Service for going too far, other locals say government officials aren't doing enough.
"It's almost like waiting until the horse goes out and then you shut the barn door," says Jack Bradt, who has helped run a wilderness outfitter in the Black Hills since 1977.
Fresh from an afternoon of work on his dude ranch, a bead of sweat lines the brim of Bradt's straw cowboy hat, and his pearl-snap Western shirt is dusty and frayed.
"Essentially everything that I have worked all of my life for is in potential danger because of the situation that ... we've got going here," he says.
Bradt says the thinning now under way at Rushmore should have happened on a wider scale years ago. But the pine beetles and the wildfires that threaten Bradt's livelihood may be linked to climate change: Beetle populations are normally kept in check by very cold winters, and it's believed warmer winters have allowed them to expand.
Millions of acres across the western United States and up into the Canadian Rockies are now infested. Dan Licht, a biologist with the National Park Service, says even with mitigation efforts at places like Rushmore, there is a good deal of uncertainty over what will happen next.
"If climate change does indeed warm up the area, we have warmer winters, the pine beetle infestations could become even worse, and even with our best efforts and our best treatments, we could still have a pine beetle infestation," Licht says.
Logging is not pretty. Big machines are ripping up the forest floor. But park officials in South Dakota stress the urgency. They say to do nothing would increase the risk of a much bigger disaster. For now, the future of the forest around Rushmore hinges on what the beetles do next.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130053576
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Google building infested by bed bugs
They are reddish-brown, smaller than an apple seed, have a taste for human blood and when they bite they itch like hell. And now the onward march of the common bedbug has extended into cyberspace.
The search engine giant Google confirmed today that its 9th Avenue offices in Manhattan have been infested with the bugs. Parts of the headquarters, a futuristic space renowned for having a Lego room and scooters for staff to move around, have been found to be harbouring the parasites, prompting the wags at Gawker media group to wonder whether its possible for them to spread via the internet.
Google is the latest victim of an epidemic that has been rampaging through New York over the summer and has the city that normally prides itself on its permanent state of cool in a veritable panic: the blood suckers have wreaked havoc everywhere from the Empire State building to hospital wards, the prosecutor's office in Brooklyn and Time Warner's Manhattan headquarters.
Nobody is immune to the threat, from theatre-goers to dwellers in posh Manhattan condominiums and shoppers. Hollister, the teen clothing store, had to close its flagship outlet in SoHo after employees complained they were being bitten.
The outbreak at Google was disclosed by one of its marketing staff who posted the news on her Twitter feed. "Jeepers, I am not immune to the bedbug panic. Bedbugs have been found at work."
The feed has now been taken down.
Across the city, there has been a two-thirds increase in the number of bedbug cases reported over the past two years, with almost 13,000 calls to the city's helpline over the past 12 months. Last year, a survey suggested one in 15 New Yorkers had become victims, a proportion that is likely to have risen since. Experts put the spread down to the decline in use of the chemical DDT, which was banned in 1972. The US environmental protection agency warned last month of an "alarming resurgence" of bed bugs that was overwhelming public health authorities.The agency has promised to search for a new generation of safe pesticides strong enough to eradicate them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/sep/03/google-infested-bed-bugs
The search engine giant Google confirmed today that its 9th Avenue offices in Manhattan have been infested with the bugs. Parts of the headquarters, a futuristic space renowned for having a Lego room and scooters for staff to move around, have been found to be harbouring the parasites, prompting the wags at Gawker media group to wonder whether its possible for them to spread via the internet.
Google is the latest victim of an epidemic that has been rampaging through New York over the summer and has the city that normally prides itself on its permanent state of cool in a veritable panic: the blood suckers have wreaked havoc everywhere from the Empire State building to hospital wards, the prosecutor's office in Brooklyn and Time Warner's Manhattan headquarters.
Nobody is immune to the threat, from theatre-goers to dwellers in posh Manhattan condominiums and shoppers. Hollister, the teen clothing store, had to close its flagship outlet in SoHo after employees complained they were being bitten.
The outbreak at Google was disclosed by one of its marketing staff who posted the news on her Twitter feed. "Jeepers, I am not immune to the bedbug panic. Bedbugs have been found at work."
The feed has now been taken down.
Across the city, there has been a two-thirds increase in the number of bedbug cases reported over the past two years, with almost 13,000 calls to the city's helpline over the past 12 months. Last year, a survey suggested one in 15 New Yorkers had become victims, a proportion that is likely to have risen since. Experts put the spread down to the decline in use of the chemical DDT, which was banned in 1972. The US environmental protection agency warned last month of an "alarming resurgence" of bed bugs that was overwhelming public health authorities.The agency has promised to search for a new generation of safe pesticides strong enough to eradicate them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/sep/03/google-infested-bed-bugs
Google building infested by bed bugs
They are reddish-brown, smaller than an apple seed, have a taste for human blood and when they bite they itch like hell. And now the onward march of the common bedbug has extended into cyberspace.
The search engine giant Google confirmed today that its 9th Avenue offices in Manhattan have been infested with the bugs. Parts of the headquarters, a futuristic space renowned for having a Lego room and scooters for staff to move around, have been found to be harbouring the parasites, prompting the wags at Gawker media group to wonder whether its possible for them to spread via the internet.
Google is the latest victim of an epidemic that has been rampaging through New York over the summer and has the city that normally prides itself on its permanent state of cool in a veritable panic: the blood suckers have wreaked havoc everywhere from the Empire State building to hospital wards, the prosecutor's office in Brooklyn and Time Warner's Manhattan headquarters.
Nobody is immune to the threat, from theatre-goers to dwellers in posh Manhattan condominiums and shoppers. Hollister, the teen clothing store, had to close its flagship outlet in SoHo after employees complained they were being bitten.
The outbreak at Google was disclosed by one of its marketing staff who posted the news on her Twitter feed. "Jeepers, I am not immune to the bedbug panic. Bedbugs have been found at work."
The feed has now been taken down.
Across the city, there has been a two-thirds increase in the number of bedbug cases reported over the past two years, with almost 13,000 calls to the city's helpline over the past 12 months. Last year, a survey suggested one in 15 New Yorkers had become victims, a proportion that is likely to have risen since. Experts put the spread down to the decline in use of the chemical DDT, which was banned in 1972. The US environmental protection agency warned last month of an "alarming resurgence" of bed bugs that was overwhelming public health authorities.The agency has promised to search for a new generation of safe pesticides strong enough to eradicate them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/sep/03/google-infested-bed-bugs
The search engine giant Google confirmed today that its 9th Avenue offices in Manhattan have been infested with the bugs. Parts of the headquarters, a futuristic space renowned for having a Lego room and scooters for staff to move around, have been found to be harbouring the parasites, prompting the wags at Gawker media group to wonder whether its possible for them to spread via the internet.
Google is the latest victim of an epidemic that has been rampaging through New York over the summer and has the city that normally prides itself on its permanent state of cool in a veritable panic: the blood suckers have wreaked havoc everywhere from the Empire State building to hospital wards, the prosecutor's office in Brooklyn and Time Warner's Manhattan headquarters.
Nobody is immune to the threat, from theatre-goers to dwellers in posh Manhattan condominiums and shoppers. Hollister, the teen clothing store, had to close its flagship outlet in SoHo after employees complained they were being bitten.
The outbreak at Google was disclosed by one of its marketing staff who posted the news on her Twitter feed. "Jeepers, I am not immune to the bedbug panic. Bedbugs have been found at work."
The feed has now been taken down.
Across the city, there has been a two-thirds increase in the number of bedbug cases reported over the past two years, with almost 13,000 calls to the city's helpline over the past 12 months. Last year, a survey suggested one in 15 New Yorkers had become victims, a proportion that is likely to have risen since. Experts put the spread down to the decline in use of the chemical DDT, which was banned in 1972. The US environmental protection agency warned last month of an "alarming resurgence" of bed bugs that was overwhelming public health authorities.The agency has promised to search for a new generation of safe pesticides strong enough to eradicate them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/sep/03/google-infested-bed-bugs
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Spider-infested ship turned back from Guam
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/spiderinfested-ship-turned-back-from-guam-2030587.html
Spider-infested ship turned back from Guam
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Authorities in the US territory of Guam have turned away a ship after thousands of spiders overflowed from its cargo. The Guam Department of Agriculture said hundreds of large spiders and thousands of smaller ones were seen when stevedores began offloading insulation and beams for housing units from the ship, the M.V. Altavia.
The cargo was returned to the ship, and the Agriculture Department on Friday ordered that the ship not be allowed to dock. It was last ported in South Korea.
"When you get this many from this many various sizes, it's definitely an infestation," said Department of Agriculture Director Joseph Torres. Agriculture officials said they didn't know what type of spiders were on
the ship. But they said it's a type that is not normally found on Guam and there was concern the spiders could damage the island's environment.
"It's not on Guam," Torres said. "We don't want it here." The ship was carrying housing units and accessories that were to be used at a work force village expected to house up to 18,000 temporary workers.
Before the ship initially docked, officers with the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency boarded the ship and gave clearance for cargo to be unlocked for offloading, said Bernadette Meno, an administrator for the Port Authority of Guam. But when port workers saw the spiders, the containers were ordered back on the ship and it was anchored in the harbor. The decision was later made not to let the ship return.
Marianas Steamship Agencies Inc. arranged for the ship's arrival and departure. Its vice president, Richard P. Sablan, said he will follow orders of customs, agriculture and US Coast Guard officials.
Spider-infested ship turned back from Guam
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Authorities in the US territory of Guam have turned away a ship after thousands of spiders overflowed from its cargo. The Guam Department of Agriculture said hundreds of large spiders and thousands of smaller ones were seen when stevedores began offloading insulation and beams for housing units from the ship, the M.V. Altavia.
The cargo was returned to the ship, and the Agriculture Department on Friday ordered that the ship not be allowed to dock. It was last ported in South Korea.
"When you get this many from this many various sizes, it's definitely an infestation," said Department of Agriculture Director Joseph Torres. Agriculture officials said they didn't know what type of spiders were on
the ship. But they said it's a type that is not normally found on Guam and there was concern the spiders could damage the island's environment.
"It's not on Guam," Torres said. "We don't want it here." The ship was carrying housing units and accessories that were to be used at a work force village expected to house up to 18,000 temporary workers.
Before the ship initially docked, officers with the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency boarded the ship and gave clearance for cargo to be unlocked for offloading, said Bernadette Meno, an administrator for the Port Authority of Guam. But when port workers saw the spiders, the containers were ordered back on the ship and it was anchored in the harbor. The decision was later made not to let the ship return.
Marianas Steamship Agencies Inc. arranged for the ship's arrival and departure. Its vice president, Richard P. Sablan, said he will follow orders of customs, agriculture and US Coast Guard officials.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Don't fear the bald squirrels
RIGHT: A black squirrel snacks at a feeder at the residence of Diane and Leonard Johnson on Morningside Avenue in Council Bluffs Wednesday. The squirrel, and several others in the area, suffers from mange, a skin disease caused by the infestation of tiny mites. The result is bare spots in a squirrel’s fur, visible around this animal’s legs.Published Thursday March 25, 2010
CINDY CHRISTENSEN/WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE.
By Tim Rohwer
WORLD-HERALD NEWS SERVICE
COUNCIL BLUFFS -- If people see squirrels with little or no fur, they shouldn’t be alarmed, according to Council Bluffs Public Works Director Donn Dierks.
“It’s an every-year occurrence,” he said.
A Council Bluffs couple expressed concern that squirrels seen in their yard may have contracted a contagious disease because the animals have patches of fur missing.
“It seems to be spreading from squirrel to squirrel,” said Diane Johnson, who lives with her husband, Leonard, on Morningside Avenue.
One squirrel had no fur at all, she said.
“It looked so awful,” Johnson said. “I felt sorry for the squirrel.”
According to Dierks, these squirrels have mange, a skin disease of mammals caused by the infestation of tiny mites.
“In extreme cases, the entire body can become bare of hair and expose the skin that can become dark,” he said. “Full recovery, however, occurs in squirrels. At this point in time, we’ll leave it up to nature to handle the problem.”
There is a way to treat the diseased squirrels, Dierks said, but it’s not cost-effective for the city to trap them for treatment.
“We just don’t have the finances to do that.”
People shouldn’t try to do it on their own, he advised.
Residents are not allowed to trap animals, he said. And “there shouldn’t be any direct contact between a squirrel and a human,” Dierks said.
There are several types of mites, he said, with one known to transfer from animal hosts to people, though there has to be physical contact between the animal and the person.
Squirrel mange should not be a danger to pets.
“Mange is pretty species-specific, so it shouldn’t be a problem if it’s going around the squirrels, “ said Dr. Emily Buhr of the Animal Emergency Clinic in Omaha. “They tend to stick with the species they are with ... A dog can’t go up to a squirrel and get squirrel mange.”
But the malady, at least in squirrels, is common, she said.
“I’ve seen a lot of them that have had issues with it,” Buhr said. ‘I think it tends to happen in the winter, when they probably get a little bit immune-suppressed.”
If someone should need to handle a mangy animal, Dierks said, it’s best to wear rubber gloves and wash properly afterward.
World-Herald staff writer Andrew J. Nelson contributed to this report.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20100325/NEWS01/703259819
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Mice infest UK's Westminster Palace in London
5 March 2010
By The Associated Press
LONDON -- The House of Lords has a momentous decision to make: Should it get cats to chase the mice that have infested one of Britain's most famous buildings?
London's Houses of Parliament, also known as Westminster Palace, has rodents, and the peers aren't exactly sure what to do about it.
Ivan Anthony Moore-Brabazon, the House's administration chief, on Wednesday turned down suggestions to acquire cats. He says the felines could ingest mice poison or wander around the chamber and disrupt business.
He favors the current tactic of using poison and mousetraps.
Parliament staff have reported daily sightings of the rodents in the palace's restaurants and bars.
The performers' union Equity says nearby theaters in London's West End are facing similar problems, with three-quarters of actors and stage managers reporting infestations of mice, rats and fleas, according to The Guardian newspaper.
http://www.kare11.com/news/whatsup/whatsup_article.aspx?storyid=843279
(submitted by D.R. Shoop)
By The Associated Press
LONDON -- The House of Lords has a momentous decision to make: Should it get cats to chase the mice that have infested one of Britain's most famous buildings?
London's Houses of Parliament, also known as Westminster Palace, has rodents, and the peers aren't exactly sure what to do about it.
Ivan Anthony Moore-Brabazon, the House's administration chief, on Wednesday turned down suggestions to acquire cats. He says the felines could ingest mice poison or wander around the chamber and disrupt business.
He favors the current tactic of using poison and mousetraps.
Parliament staff have reported daily sightings of the rodents in the palace's restaurants and bars.
The performers' union Equity says nearby theaters in London's West End are facing similar problems, with three-quarters of actors and stage managers reporting infestations of mice, rats and fleas, according to The Guardian newspaper.
http://www.kare11.com/news/whatsup/whatsup_article.aspx?storyid=843279
(submitted by D.R. Shoop)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
London stage fright: rats, mice and fleas
Thu Mar 4, 2010 2:03pm GMT
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Performers in London's West End are having to cope with a different kind of stage fright in the form of mice, rat and flea infestations in theatres, according to a new survey by actors' union Equity.
"The findings have shocked even hardened West Enders," the union said in its report, which found that three quarters of actors and stage managers reported regular infestations including mice, rats and fleas.
Equity general secretary Christine Payne said the findings suggested that each night, more than 600 actors and stage managers would go to work knowing they were likely to see and smell vermin, "both living and decomposing," at work.
"I accept that many West End theatres are old and difficult buildings to manage, but this is running out of control," she added. "These appalling conditions must come to an end."
The survey was completed by nearly 350 performers and stage managers in 24 different theatres, many of them featuring world-famous shows.
Individuals surveyed reported that floors had been eaten by mice which also left droppings and unpleasant smells.
"I had tiny bite marks on my lipstick recently when I left the lid off," one respondent said.
(Reporting by Valle Aviles Pinedo; editing by Keith Weir and Mike Collett-White)
http://af.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idAFTRE6232FM20100304
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Performers in London's West End are having to cope with a different kind of stage fright in the form of mice, rat and flea infestations in theatres, according to a new survey by actors' union Equity.
"The findings have shocked even hardened West Enders," the union said in its report, which found that three quarters of actors and stage managers reported regular infestations including mice, rats and fleas.
Equity general secretary Christine Payne said the findings suggested that each night, more than 600 actors and stage managers would go to work knowing they were likely to see and smell vermin, "both living and decomposing," at work.
"I accept that many West End theatres are old and difficult buildings to manage, but this is running out of control," she added. "These appalling conditions must come to an end."
The survey was completed by nearly 350 performers and stage managers in 24 different theatres, many of them featuring world-famous shows.
Individuals surveyed reported that floors had been eaten by mice which also left droppings and unpleasant smells.
"I had tiny bite marks on my lipstick recently when I left the lid off," one respondent said.
(Reporting by Valle Aviles Pinedo; editing by Keith Weir and Mike Collett-White)
http://af.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idAFTRE6232FM20100304
Friday, June 12, 2009
The Snakes Are Winning!
Date: 12-Jun-09Country: AFRICA
Author: Bazuki Muhammad
FREETOWN - Police in Sierra Leone have called in the army and fire brigade to try to take back control of a police station which has been overrun by hundreds of venomous snakes.
Snake charmers have tried in vain to lure the beasts, mostly cobras and vipers, out of Gerihun police station in the southern district of Bo. Attempts to smoke them out also failed.
Officers and residents wanting to report crimes have grown too afraid to come to the building.
"Even during work time when statements are being taken, these snakes can come out in dozens. Inhabitants have found it difficult to report cases to the police," station spokesman Brima Kota said.
Soldiers and fire fighters had been dispatched from the capital Freetown and would try to flood out the snakes, believed to number as many as 400, he said.
Wild animals have regularly had run-ins with villagers in remote, thickly forested parts of Sierra Leone, particularly in settlements where humans have only recently returned after fleeing the country's 10-year civil war.
Paramilitary police were drafted in to protect villagers in Bo from wild bush cows after a farmer was gored to death a few years ago, while rampaging elephants killed eight people and chased 600 from their homes in the east not long before that.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)
http://planetark.org/wen/53329
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Bees trap workers in NYC game store
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 24, 2009
NEW YORK - Thousands of bees swarmed outside a New York City game store, trapping employees inside for hours.
Worried employees looked out the window of the Manhattan store, while talking on the phone, as the bees clustered Saturday afternoon.
A sign in the window warned: "Look! ... closed due to bee infestation."
Most passers-by avoided the GameStop store near Union Square, one of the city's busiest shopping areas.
But Edward Albers tried to help.
Dressed in regular clothes, he lured many bees into a box without being stung.
Eventually, police bee specialist Tony Planakis arrived in protective gear and used the scent of a queen bee to collect the rest of them.
The store has reopened for business.
The bees are being taken to hives upstate.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/05/24/9550401-ap.html
May 24, 2009
NEW YORK - Thousands of bees swarmed outside a New York City game store, trapping employees inside for hours.
Worried employees looked out the window of the Manhattan store, while talking on the phone, as the bees clustered Saturday afternoon.
A sign in the window warned: "Look! ... closed due to bee infestation."
Most passers-by avoided the GameStop store near Union Square, one of the city's busiest shopping areas.
But Edward Albers tried to help.
Dressed in regular clothes, he lured many bees into a box without being stung.
Eventually, police bee specialist Tony Planakis arrived in protective gear and used the scent of a queen bee to collect the rest of them.
The store has reopened for business.
The bees are being taken to hives upstate.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/05/24/9550401-ap.html
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