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LANSING - VanSingel Farms harvests 50,000 pounds of carrots per day. But those carrots aren't making it into soups, salads or carrot cakes. Instead, they're strewn across 40 acres of land waiting to rot. "We don't know how to get rid of them," said Steve De Fouw, who sells produce for VanSingel, a 1,500-acre operation in Grant. Though the farm grows carrots for soup, its contract ran out in October, and it's now left with excess stock and nowhere to sell it, De Fouw said. Michigan's apple, carrot and sugar beet crops may be heading to new destinations this year...

Starting two days ago telemarketers began to call my cell phone. They're calling from the number 909-842-9166 and 901-842-9167 They're also calling from Unknown numbers sometimes. If I answer they'll tell me I've won a free gas card or something. They're calling about ten times a day. When I ask them to stop calling (it's usually an Indian person) The woman laughed and goes "No no. Haha. We call again. Bye bye." I looked this up on the internet and it appears that a telemarketing company is paying another company to disguise it's number. I called Sprint and sprint says...

Hygiene standards in NHS hospitals have been called into question after it emerged they are routinely dealing with infestations of vermin. Outbreaks have included rats in maternity wards, wasps and fleas in neo-natal units, bed bug infestations, flies in operating theatres and maggots found in patients' slippers. The data, uncovered using Freedom of Information rules, include hospitals with maggots, "over-run" with ants and mice "all over" wards; cockroaches in a urology unit and a store for sterile materials infested with mice.

Old ladies lovingly nurtured rats, turning a home in one of the nation's priciest enclaves into Willard...

A years-long legal battle for a La Jolla cove may be ending – but for activists on both sides, the seal saga goes on. ___ The air is thick with the stench of seal poop – a scent as sour as the years-long battle for this tiny piece of shoreline. For over a decade, it’s been the pinnipeds vs. the people in a fight for control, with activists on both sides using everything from heckling and restraining orders to lawsuits and a stun gun to draw and redraw their respective lines in the sand. Seals have been gathering here since...

OK. I had a few small like hills in my backyard where moles (moles? gophers? chinese miners?) had dug up I guess for air or whatever. No biggie, really. Never had the problem when I had a dog, maybe getting another dog would be the ultimate solution. But this morning I go out there and there are SIX of these large hills, with the opening very clear and visible, no doubt the little bastids did a lot of work! While I applaud their tenacity and dexterity, enuff is enuff. So I have this stuff called "Critter Ridder". It is a...

A New Jersey man trying to exterminate insects in his apartment blew it up instead, the New York Daily News reported on Monday. The accident occurred as Maceda was spraying for pests in his kitchen. Somehow the bug spray ignited a blast that blew out the apartment's front windows and triggered a fire that quickly spread, the newspaper said.

RESIDENTS OF an upmarket Perth street have told how they live in constant fear of aerial attack. Locals in Beechgrove Drive find they have regularly to dive for cover as “vicious seagulls” swoop on them. Postmen have also been attacked and residents are now being warned to be “aware of the threat.” Meanwhile, Perth and Kinross Council have pledged to “see if anything can be done” about the aggressive seabirds. Pensioner Joyce Pitt (83) is among those scared to venture outdoors. “It is an extremely frightening situation,” she told The Courier last night. “The gulls are quite vicious and have...

After this weekend's barbeques and fireworks displays, you might wonder why some people wind up covered in mosquito welts and others are bite-free. It's not a coincidence. Each person's individual body chemistry determines how many mosquitoes will come calling. According to Joe Conlon, a medical entomologist who advises the American Mosquito Control Association, the insects can detect their targets from nearly 100 feet away. But what are they seeking? Mostly the scent of carbon dioxide and lactic acid, two compounds that indicate to the hematophagous — or blood-sucking — pests that their next landing pad is nearby. (It's worth noting...

Mainers call the black fly the state bird. Residents and tourists have long steeled themselves against the flies' annual warm-weather onslaught, sometimes duct-taping pant legs and wearing screened hoods to keep the deceptively small bugs from delivering bloody bites or crawling into seemingly every body crevice. But there are now more black flies in more places in Maine, and the reason may be surprising: It's the success of the environmental movement.

United Illuminating Co. says a New Haven judge has dismissed a lawsuit by an animal rights group seeking to stop the company from capturing and killing monk parakeets nesting on utility poles. The Darien-based Friends of Animals Inc., brought the lawsuit against UI more than two years ago, and wanted an injunction to permanently halt the eradication. The group recommended man-made nesting platforms, which United Illuminating criticizes as ineffective. Judge Trial Referee Anthony DeMayo dismissed the case Wednesday, saying the plaintiffs' legal strategy was unusual because it failed to call UI officials to testify even though they were in the...

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U.S. streets could soon be overrun with cats if communities fail to get a handle on growing feline populations, a veterinary medicine researcher says. *** Who herds cats? The perception is that the government provides funding for the control of cats, but "by and large, that is not the case in Ohio," Lord said. "Government has tended to not want to be involved with cats. And I don't know if they can avoid it anymore." ***

The Humane Society of the United States has filed a request for an emergency injunction asking a federal appeals court to block the government from killing protected sea lions at Bonneville Dam. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman rejected a request for a preliminary injunction on Wednesday even though he said the Humane Society might prevail in court with a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the states of Oregon and Washington. The ruling left open the possibility the states could begin killing the sea lions today. But the government and the Humane Society said they did not expect...

Stalin's last army: hordes of gigantic crabs on their way to invade Europe - By Julius Strauss in Kirkenes, Northern Norway Millions of giant Pacific crabs, whose ancestors were brought to Europe by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, are marching south along Norway's coast, devouring everything in their path.The monster crabs, which can weigh up to 25lb and have a claw-span of more than three feet, are proving so resilient that scientists fear they could end up as far south as Gibraltar. Energised by a mysterious population explosion a decade ago, whole armies of the crustaceans - known as the...

PORTLAND -- The Humane Society of the United States, Wild Fish Conservancy and two citizens have filed suit in U.S. District Court to halt the authorized killing of sea lions at the base of Bonneville Dam in the Columbia River. The lawsuit, filed Monday, had been filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., last week but it was withdrawn when the fish conservancy group asked to join it. The National Marine Fisheries Service has granted a request by Oregon and Washington to kill up to 85 animals a year over five years to protect endangered or threatened salmon runs. The...

The hunter may soon become the hunted at Bonneville Dam. Sea lions have in recent years converted the damÂ’s forebay into their own salmon buffet line, but soon they may eat their last meal. Federal authorities last week granted a request by the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho to shoot California sea lions believed to be taking a chunk of salmon stocks that have already dwindled nearly to the point of extinction. The issue pits one creature against another, but it more fundamentally raises questions about humansÂ’ role in trying to strike a balance. Ultimately, itÂ’s likely someone will...

(BEIJING) - Reducing Beijing's rats, flies, mosquitoes and cockroaches has been placed "at the top of the agenda" by the city's pest-control experts to ensure no outbreaks during the Olympic Games, state media reported on Thursday. Beijing was confident of preventing and controlling outbreaks of pests during the Games, having hired U.S. experts and set up a "citywide surveillance network", Zeng Xiaotong, a disease control official under China's Ministry of Health, told the China Daily. "Since 2005, the Beijing Loving-Motherland Sanitation Movement Committee has called on sanitation workers and Beijing residents to kill pests and improve hygiene," Zeng said. "These...

STUART, Fla. -- A Florida County has declared war on killer bees. Commissioners in Martin County have unanimously passed an ordinance allowing county employees to go onto private property without permission to kill Africanized bees and treat areas where mosquitoes are breeding. The county's mosquito control administrator Gene Lemire said the county already responds to bee and mosquito complaints with the permission of property owners. But he said they have had an increasing number of incidents in which property owners either cannot be found or are unwilling to clean up the infestation themselves. Killer bees, which Lemire said have been...

Federal fisheries managers are giving the go-ahead today for Oregon and Washington officials to trap and, if necessary, kill sea lions that wolf down thousands of salmon at Bonneville Dam every year. The Associated Press received a copy of the order late Monday. It limits lethal removal to sea lions deemed to have a significant effect on federally protected salmon and steelhead stocks. They must have been seen eating such fish between Jan. 1 and May 31 of any year. The order says sea lions captured in traps must be held for at least 48 hours to allow a search...

Authorities often learn about it from landowners who hear shooting at night and find deer carcasses in their fields the next day. One case came to light when a bloody deer heart was discovered in a girl's high school locker. And some incidents are solved when conservation wardens catch the criminals red-handed - shooting from roads with the help of spotlights and headlights, then leaving the wounded and dying animals behind. Conservation wardens call it "thrill killing" of animals, and it appears to be a growing problem throughout Wisconsin, said Chief Warden Randy Stark. Several dozen cases have been confirmed...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Politicians have finally found an issue they all can agree on: Telemarketers calling at dinnertime are a scourge that must be repulsed. Congress on Wednesday sent to President Bush two bills that would make permanent a program to protect consumers from unwanted phone calls from telemarketers. Its hallmark is the national "do not call" list. "This initiative has proven to be one of the most popular laws in history," said Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C. Extending the program was necessary "to avoid the wrath of millions of angry constituents." The Do Not Call Registry, initiated in 2003, has...

State wildlife officials say a destructive species known as the zebra mussel has been discovered in California for the first time. Department of Fish and Game spokeswoman Alexia Retallack says a fisherman found the mollusks while fishing in the San Justo Reservoir in San Benito County. Lab tests conducted Monday confirmed that the creatures were zebra mussels, which are known to clog water pipes and boat engines and alter the chemistry of marine ecosystems. State officials plan to conduct further surveys to determine the extent of the infestation and develop a plan to stop its spread. They're asking fishermen and...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A beetle imported from Asia is spreading around the southeast United States, leaving dead and dying redbay trees in its wake. The redbay ambrosia beetle is believed to have entered the country through Savannah, Ga., in 2002, probably in a wood pallet or packing case. It has spread into the Carolinas and south to Florida, where it was spotted for the first time last summer in Brevard County in central Florida, Florida Today reports.

Unemployed to Sterilize Monkeys in India Indian State Plans to Train Unemployed Youth to Sterilize Monkeys Plaguing Area FILE ** A monkey drinks from a water tap in the outskirts of Jammu, India, in this file photograph dated Monday, April 30, 2007. A north Indian state said Thursday Jan. 3, 2008, that it planned to use unemployed youths to sterilize monkeys who may then be sent to camps in an effort to combat the aggressive primates who have been raiding farms in the area. The idea drew immediate condemnation from conservationists who said the plan was unscientific and would...

I would like to continue storing my scrap lumber in the garage, but my wife is worried about termites. I told her that as long as it is stored off of the ground and not touching the walls that it is safe from termites. I cannot find the definitive word on the internet on this subject. Can someone here help me out? Thank you.

Comedienne Rosie O'Donnell has hit back after she was named the world's most annoying celebrity by insisting all stars are irritating.

A bedbug epidemic has exploded in every corner of New York City - striking even upper East Side luxury apartments owned by Gov. Spitzer's father, the Daily News has learned. The blood-sucking nocturnal creatures have infested a Park Ave. penthouse, an artist's colony in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a $25 million Central Park West duplex and a theater on Broadway, according to victims, exterminators and elected officials. Once linked to flophouses and fleabags, bedbug outbreaks victimize the rich and poor alike and are spreading panic in some of the city's hottest neighborhoods. "In the last six months, I've treated maternity wards, five-star...

Across the city, delis and bodegas are a familiar and vital part of the streetscape, modest places where customers can pick up necessities, a container of milk, a can of soup, a loaf of bread. Amid the goods found in the stores, there is one thing that many owners and employees say they cannot do without: their cats. And it goes beyond cuddly companionship. These cats are workers, tireless and enthusiastic hunters of unwanted vermin, and they typically do a far better job than exterminators and poisons. When a bodega cat is on the prowl, workers say, rats and mice...

LAMPASAS TX - Imagine driving down the street when suddenly, a deer leaps through a window into your car! That's exactly what happened to a woman in Lampasas this morning at 3rd and Porter. She had just dropped her children off at school and was driving down the street when the deer made its grand entrance.

Two Chicago aldermen are calling for fines of up to $1,000 and jail sentences of up to six months for people who feed the city's pigeons. "No person shall purposely provide food -- including, but not limited to grain, seeds, greens, bread crumbs and miscellaneous food scraps -- intended for pigeon ingestion on public property or property subject to the city right-of-way," the proposed ordinance says. Aldermen Danny Solis and Helen Shiller introduced it at a City Council meeting Wednesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday. ...

The City Council is poised to send a message to residents: We don't want your clucking chickens. Coming up for a vote Wednesday is a proposal to ban chickens, a former barnyard denizen that is pecking its way into cities across the country as part of a growing organic food trend among young professionals and other urban dwellers. Chicken lovers say the birds make great pets, don't take up much backyard space and provide tasty, nutritious eggs. Cities including Madison, Wis., and Kent, Wash., have passed ordinances allowing people to keep chickens. In Ann Arbor, Mich., a councilman says he...

The battle between the rodents, which ornithology experts call "mass-production machines," and the owls, the "hunting machines," is about to begin. If all goes as planned, the rodents that destroy Israel's alfalfa fields can start shaking in their boots, the experts say. The opening salvo was fired last Thursday at a conference at Kibbutz Kfar Blum, under the banner "Owls and Falcons as Biological Pest Controllers in Agriculture." No fewer than 200 farmers registered for the conference, and the organizers had no choice last week but to turn away additional applicants with the promise of another seminar in the future....

Monsanto is developing genetically modified plants that use RNA interference to kill the insects that eat them. Researchers have created plants that kill insects by disrupting their gene expression. The crops, which initiate a gene-silencing response called RNA interference, are a step beyond existing genetically modified crops that produce toxic proteins. Because the new crops target particular genes in particular insects, some researchers suggest that they will be safer and less likely to have unintended effects than other genetically modified plants. Others warn that it is too early to make such predictions and that the plants should be carefully tested...

Oriental fruit flies have been found near the Los Angeles Harbor, prompting county crews to set traps to kill the pest. The Los Angeles County Department of Agriculture found a fly Tuesday in Harbor City. Three additional flies were found there and in Rolling Hills later in the week. County workers are preparing to spread insecticide-laden bait in the area. No spraying is planned, but sticky globs of poisoned bait will be stuck to power poles and high in trees. The flies usually arrive in Southern California when contraband food, fruit or plants are brought in from Asia. The pest...

Tree-thinning to begin in fall in Colorado, Wyo. The U.S. Forest Service is launching a major effort to battle bark beetles across an 80,000-acre swath of Colorado and Wyoming, its largest assault to date on the fire-prone forests. The plan, announced Friday, calls for thinning and tree removal in five Colorado counties and two in Wyoming. The program, aided by $8 million in new federal funding, relies on partnerships between the federal agency and the mountain counties where rust-red trees are causing the most danger to humans. Mary Ann Chandler, a Forest Service spokeswoman, said the agency has structured the...

An unstoppable wave could devastate 3 million acres of lodgepole pines. Mountain pine beetles are obliterating a forest that stretches from British Columbia to Mexico, and in the process are creating a hazard for fire, public safety and water supply. “What we’re looking at is an entire lodgepole pine forest dying right before our eyes,”... Severson described the problem to the Colorado Water Congress at its convention last week.... More than 22 million acres eventually will be destroyed in the American West. Meanwhile, the beetles are making their way across Canada toward the Atlantic Ocean as well. The lack of...

local MP Paul Muite urged the Kenyan Wildlife Service to help contain their aggressive behaviour. Mr Muite caused laughter when he told parliament that the monkeys had taken to harassing and mocking women in a village. They estimate there are close to 300 monkeys invading the farms at dawn. They eat the village's maize, potatoes, beans and other crops. And because women are primarily responsible for the farms, they have borne the brunt of the problem, as they try to guard their crops. The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts They say...

The search for the "magic bullet" contraceptive, a one-shot, long-lasting solution to the state's deer overpopulation woes, has once again eluded scientists, according to the latest study by a wildlife research team. Biologist Anthony DiNicola's study of a captive herd at the Giralda Farms corporate center in Madison found that one of the latest immuno-contraceptives, called GonaCon, falls far short of being a viable vaccine. Had it worked, scientists say it would have been a godsend to towns with too many deer, and where hunting is difficult or impractical. The two-year study of 51 adult deer at Giralda Farms showed...

Bed feeling a little crowded? Maybe you have company. The Cimex lectularius, better known and despised as the common bedbug, is snuggling into households across Southern California, giving people the heebie- jeebies. The blood-sucking, heat-seeking, pint-size parasites aren't believed by the experts to transmit disease, but they do have a way of cranking up stress levels. "It was just horrendous," said a West Hollywood middle-school teacher, who, like others who have been horrified to have lived with the uninvited guests, asked that she not be identified. "Think of how you wouldn't sleep at night if you had roaches, and this...

Last Updated: Sunday, 12 August 2007, 10:10 GMT 11:10 UK Hospital food hygiene 'is poor' Cockroaches and vermin were foundin some hospital kitchens Almost half of hospital kitchens and canteens in England have poor hygiene standards, a dossier has suggested. The Liberal Democrats said inspection reports obtained under the Freedom of Information Act painted a "shocking picture" of hospital food hygiene. Vermin, cockroaches and the storage of medical and food items together were reported by some local authorities. The Food Standards Agency said it would expect any authority with hospital food hygiene problems to take action. 'Wrong temperatures'The Liberal Democrats...

“It’s nature. I’m sorry it’s negatively affecting you,” STERLING, MA - A sump pump rumbled in the cellar of her Sterling home and a hose gurgled in the front yard as Mary B. Honan waited for a state Department of Conservation and Recreation official to arrive at her house earlier this week. The feisty Irish lilt in her voice falling flat, Ms. Honan declared herself the loser of a four-year war. “The beavers have won,” she said before the deputy director arrived. A native of Ireland, Ms. Honan fell in love with the energy of the United States in the...

GADSDEN, Ala. -- It's not exactly the ideal way to get rid of pesky mosquitos. But a 59-year-old Gadsden woman apparently grew tired of dealing with the problem that she blamed on a house next door. Her solution, according to police, was to used an accelerate and set fire to the dwelling, which was empty. She had claimed the owner and city officials refused to address the problem. For her trouble, Sherry Simmons now faces a second-degree arson charge. No word on the extent of the fire damage. Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.

Burmese pythons are particularly popular for about $40 wholesale or just under $100 in a pet store, at about the size of a ruler. You feed a little one mice, and then rats, and then as it continues to grow in size and appetite, you offer up chickens and rabbits, the experts say. You watch your snakeling graduate in about three years to a length of 10 or 12 feet, or longer. Ultimately it can reach 20 feet, and the heavyweights tip the scales at about 300 pounds, and live to about 25 years. Their defacatory production is renowned. And...

Hollywood Pigeons Being Put On The Pill Officials Try To Control PopulationPOSTED: 7:39 am EDT July 30, 2007 LOS ANGELES -- Pigeons living in tinsel town are going on the pill. Hollywood residents believe its a humane way to reduce the pigeon population and the messes the birds make. Community leaders plan to announce the pilot program Monday at a news conference. Laura Dodson, the president of the Argyle Civic Association said the "poop problem" has become unmanageable and this could be the answer. Over the next few months a birth control product called OvoControl P, which interferes with egg...

Goal of cutting is to reduce fire danger, salvage timber and regrow forest. Removing beetle infected pine trees will help new and healthy pine trees grow. It will also promote the growth of aspen, which are naturally fire resistant. By clearing out these trees, they’re prevented from falling on the ground, which not only adds to the fire danger, but also hampers growth of new trees. Dead trees also obstruct movement of large animals such as deer and elk. The dead trees left behind shed their needles and branches and then fall to the forest floor. The pines, filled with...

Bears cannot be legally hunted or trapped in Connecticut, but that may soon change. The Department of Environmental Protection is working on a management plan to deal with the state's growing bear population. Management methods may include banning the feeding of bears, creating seasons for hunting, official culling, educational programs, and relocating problem bears. DEP officials working on the management plan expect to submit it for the commissioner's approval by the year's end. The DEP believes that there are close to 300 black bears in Connecticut, and the agency estimates the bear population may be growing by 10 percent to...

NewsTrack - QuirksBags of water hung to keep flies awayORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Restaurant operators along the coasts of Florida are trying a new, yet simple, way to repel flies on dining patios -- hanging bags of water. Scientists say the method has no real merit, but restaurateurs on the Florida Keys and as far away as Texas swear by it, the Orlando Sentinel reported. "It seems to be working," said Jeannie Eckbloom, a longtime server at Gator's, on the Seminole-Volusia line. "It's even keeping the birds away." Some scientists believe the way the light shines through the...

Click the following link: Two Billion Rats of Lake Dongting

Mass murder of mice not enough Created: 2007-7-14 0:00:01 Author:Alice Gu ABOUT one million mice, up to 40 tons, have been poisoned to death in the past 20 days in the Dongting Lake area of central China's Hunan Province. However, authorities said the dead mice were not buried and their remains could be seen almost everywhere. Villagers from the 20 counties in the lake area have used everything from clubs and shovels to kill mice scurrying towards homes while others used fishing nets to stop the rats. However, people later realized mice poison might be the oldest but most efficient...