[dgavey]

I'm not sure they thought this through completely. As a person who owns a snake, I can tell you that convincing a snake to eat an already dead mouse, when they are not used to it, is not easy. They prefer live and warm prey. I'd be very surprised if this actually works with any amount of efficiency. Perhaps the brown tree snake is different than typical captive snakes, but in my opinion it would be only be more difficult to convince a wild snake to eat an already dead mouse.

[ams6110]

And, even if they do eat them, if there's any significant variation in natural tolerance to acetaminophen among the snakes, you will just end up selecting for it and eventually this approach will stop working. Still, if it works, it's cheap and relatively harmless control for the short term.

[JoeAltmaier]

Gene pool is probably very small - if they were introduced with a couple from a cargo ship, maybe microscopic. Little chance for selection to work.

[MrZongle2]

It's clear to me that once they realize that the place is filled with the rotting bodies of mice, they'll need to import a type of snake that doesn't mind eating dead mice.

Oops.

[maxerickson]

The article says there are 2 million snakes and that they dropped 2000 mice.

Sounds like a test to me.

[BrandonMarc]

Good question. I wonder if a captive snake is accustomed to knowing it'll be fed with some regularity, whereas a wild one is less certain if / when it'll find its next meal.

[dgavey]

They definitely get accustomed, she is quite predictable in her time table and eating habits. It took a good couple months before she finally ate her first mouse. The brown tree snake in Guam appears to be quite the survivor and doesn't appear to be as picky. Still, from the little I do understand about snakes, the temperature of the food seems to play a major factor for them. That's where I'm most concerned about this plan failing.

[oofabz]

They should try using live mice with little acetaminophen candy necklaces.