Posted on 05/17/2010 1:10:37 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Rat plague threatens grasslands in China's Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia
English.news.cn 2010-05-08 16:44:48
BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) -- A plague of rats is threatening more than 10 million hectares of grassland in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, local authorities said Saturday.
In Inner Mongolia, 5.82 million hectares of grazing land have been overwhelmed by the burrowing rodents, said Zhang Zhuoran from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry.
In worst-hit Urad Prairie in Bayannur League, burrows pocked the bare, yellowish-brown earth after rats chewed through a large areas of grass.
Dry weather is to blame for the rat plague, Zhang said.
In Xinjiang, 5.58 million hectares of grassland have been affected by the rodents.
In addition, pests and poisonous weeds are threatening 9.59 million hectares of grazing land, said Mu Chen from the Xinjiang grasshoppers and prairie rats control headquarters.
Authorities in the two regions are combating the rat plague through poison sprays, sometimes using airplanes.
Editor: Wang Guanqun
P!
This is their karma for treating cat as a delicacy.
We have a rat plague here in the US as well. The US rats are in charge and are destroying US from the ground up... We have a drought here as well from hearing the ‘truth’....
Rat plague. Put that right up near the top of the list of things that suck.
Rats On A Stick! Rats On A Stick!
Life imitates Monty Python.
I wonder what plagues will come from the rat population explosion.
It seems to be hurting their domestic grazing livestock industry, from the description. If they get a rat invasion of a densely populated area, now that could lead to plagues. And the Great Cat In The Sky will smile at its revenge.
A scientific experiment to produce more Democrat voters gone awry?
China should invest into a couple of .17HMR factories. The varmints will be gone in no time.
Yup ... they need CATS!
Import some North Koreans. Rat stew!
Rats in Asia and Bees swarm Obama at the White House on Sunday, interesting.
Think Biblically God, please think Plagues!
Oh, this is not a story about DemocRATS!
They taste like chicken, so what’s the problem?
;^)
Hopefully we can do something about the rat plague in Washington D.C., come November.
Think it may be as much about their penchant for eating snakes.
Rat...it's what's for dinner.
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