Something New To Worry About - Plague Squirrels

Discussion in 'Pets & Critters' started by Dwight Ward, Jul 14, 2020.

  1. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    #1
  2. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    Interesting reading.
     
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  3. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    It’s strange that it’s being sensationalized.
    Any rodent whether it is a squirrel, rat, rabbit, ground hog etc can carry infected fleas and as a matter of fact, the U.S. has an average of 11 or so cases of plague infected humans each year and Russia has a couple of thousand cases each year. China, dunno. They found 1 infected rodent of some sort last week and it made all the news media.
    The thing they’re not saying is that if person is infected and it is caught early, it’s treatable.

    One way or the other, somebody’s trying to make a bunch of agoraphobics out of the population whereby a whole mass of the population will be too afraid to walk out their front doors lest they catch something and die. Unless you’re in a riot. No one catches anything but bullets in a riot.

    Amazon....get ready for the onslaught!
     
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  4. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    They do talk about treatment, but I wasn't aware that a few cases were a normal thing.
     
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  5. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Oh, I didn’t write that the disease is normal. It’s rare just like rabies and malaria is a rarity in the U.S. but it is normal in the sense that we know that rodents of any kind can carry the infected fleas. It’s a given that there are more rats and mice compared to any other type of rodent so it’s even more prevalent for mice and rats to be infected but that doesn’t mean that other rodents can’t be carriers.
    That said, just because I know that squirrels, [a rodent] can carry the source for the bubonic plague doesn’t mean I’m going to sit on my front porch and start shooting squirrels.
    (Note: Which, would be a bad thing anyway even if they were infected because like using mouse traps to kill mice, the fleas get knocked off and search for another host.)

    There are a myriad of diseases that a person can catch, but even though they are rare, just like the bubonic plague, they’re still treatable and the causes are controllable.
    I mean, Russia just made it illegal to hunt Marmots because it’s suspected that they carry fleas responsible for an uptick in the number of cases of the plague. It’s strange that the media isn’t carrying that news.
    To me, a couple dozen infected marmots in Russia is far more newsworthy than finding 1 infected rabbit (or whatever) in the whole expanse of China or even 1 squirrel in Colorado.
     
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    Last edited: Jul 14, 2020
  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    why would anybody even be testing a squirrel for ANYTHING, anyway ? this sounds like more fear-mongering to me. Nothing in the article even mentions why the squirrel was tested, or anything more about the squirrel.
     
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  7. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Yeah, the Murder Hornets failed to produce the intended effect, so they're trying squirrels.

    Good point. That crossed my mind when I read that two cats had tested positive for COVID-19 a couple of months ago, although they suffered only mild respiratory symptoms. At that time, there weren't nearly enough testing kits available to test people, but they were testing cats. It seemed suspicious to me.
     
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  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I tried testing a squirrel once. Damn thing ate the pencil!
     
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  9. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    The upside is that we'll have public spaces all to ourselves!!!
     
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  10. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    If I don't feed the squirrels around my house, they get testy. Sometimes they even bang on the windows and scold me when I go outdoors.
     
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  11. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I have birds like that. Bluebirds can be particularly entitled.
     
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  12. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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  13. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I read an article long ago that theorized that the origins of using garlic to ward off vampires dates back to the plague.

    People were dropping like flies, and no one knew why (given the [lack of] technology of the day.) But when they noticed that the garlic vendors on the street somehow seemed to be faring better than others, they surmised that garlic was warding off the evil spirits. The likely explanation for these vendors doing so well is that they snacked on their wares throughout the day, deriving a mild antibiotic benefit from eating so much garlic.
     
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  14. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    I know why.. The vendors didn't have to worry about social distancing.
     
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  15. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    LOL!!!

    Yeh, garlic will do that....
     
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