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Article: Invasive species--don't let them in the door. (On First Reading).
- Article from:
- State Legislatures
- Article date:
- January 1, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 National Conference of State Legislatures. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Slithering invaders hit the island of Guam three decades ago and have flourished: now up to 26,000 per square mile. Brown tree snakes have gobbled their way through the island's bird species, bitten babies and tangled up in power lines, causing frequent electric blowouts at a cost of $4 million in damages annually.
Native to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, eastern Australia and Indonesia, the snakes showed up in Guam in the 1940s, probably hitching rides on military shipments at the end of World War II.
But scientists have finally found a way of getting rid of the pests ... with Tylenol (or at least with acetaminophen, its active ingredient). U.S. ...