MOSQUITOES INSPIRE KILLING CONTEST
Fort Belknap, Mont. — According to a story from the Associated Press, an outbreak of bubonic plague is striking prairie dogs in Montana and killing them off in huge numbers. Since the first evidence of the disease appeared last fall, about 3,600 acres of healthy prairie dog towns have died off, the report said.
Health officials say plague outbreaks among prairie dogs in the area is nothing new, but people have been advised to keep themselves and their pets free of fleas and away from plague-prone areas.
Fleas transmit bubonic plague. Other animals known to carry the disease are deer mice, rats, badgers, coyotes, bobcats and antelope, AP reported.
MOSQUITOES INSPIRE KILLING CONTEST
Valle Lomellina, Italy — And you thought you were fed up with mosquitoes.
In September, in this small Italian village, there was a first-of-its kind contest scheduled — a mosquito-killing contest. The national championship was to have had 25 contestants armed with only their bare hands.
According to one contest organizer, "(The contest) is linked to our town, to our tradition — mosquitoes are a major pain," Flavio Zuccotti told the Associated Press.
The winner — the one who kills the most mosquitoes in five minutes — wins a gold mosquito as well as a gold medal. The contest is part of the village’s annual rice festival. Valle Lomellina is 50 miles south of Milan and has a population of 2,000.
BUGS MAKE IT INTO N.Y. TIMES MAGAZINE
New York City — Different pests have been bothering people all across the United States this summer. There have been mosquitoes in New York, fire ants in Texas and Afri-canized honeybees in Las Vegas. Many of those pests were reported on in a summer issue of the New York Times Magazine.
A map with pictures of the pests and descriptions of the problems they cause appeared under the headline "Attack of the Killer Bunnies." The headline referred to a cottontail rabbit infestation at the Leisure World retirement community in Orange County, Calif.
"What with killer mosquitoes stalking the streets of the city…New Yorkers may feel singled out by the forces of nature," the article read. "But while we spray and swat, citizens of towns all across America are also fending off unwanted fauna, from swarms of marauding insects to the hundreds of thousands of mice that overran Apopka, Fla., after the state flooded 14,000 acres of abandoned farmland."
In November …
• What should PCOs do to control lice and scabies?
• Using public speaking as a marketing strategy
• Eradicating collection problems
