How do roundups contribute to the potential spread of rodent-borne diseases?
Rodent-borne diseases have been a bane to human existence throughout history. The bubonic plague, for example, is carried by fleas living on mammals, usually rodents. Other diseases spread by rodents include Lyme disease, Murine typhus, and Hanta virus. Snakes, including venomous species, play an important role in the control of rodent populations. One rattlesnake can consume as many as 21 rodents a year. If we consider that the number of rattlesnakes taken for the Sweetwater, Texas, roundup has been as high as 18,000 in a single weekend, it appears that approximately 378,000 extra rodents are left to survive, breed, and serve as potential disease carriers each year as a result of that event alone. Allowing the overpopulation of rodents to occur is an economic, health, and ecological liability. What problems might arise from the transport of rattlesnakes? In recent years, a number of western diamondback rattlesnakes have been found in Kansas, which, until recently, had no verified reco
