The Conquest Of Florida
We regret to inform our readers that the state of Florida is rapidly falling to the assaulting forces of the Animal Uprising™. First it was the alligators torching tourist traps, then the python legions advancing from the Everglades. Now the next, and grossest, wave has landed in central Florida, just a short distance from Disney.
The mouse brigades are advancing.
But while Mickey Mouse's fans may be welcome, the residents of Apopka, a tiny town 25 miles north of the theme park, are disgusted by the hundreds of thousands of real mice that have overrun their community.
The thumb-sized house mice have chased people out of homes and offices for the second time since 1999, said David Overfield, environmental administrator for the Orange County Health Department.
"It's pretty nasty," said Overfield, whose job includes trying to determine the cause of the infestation.
His current theory says an overabundant crop of acorns may have encouraged well-fed mice to mate — and mate some more.
Dee Sincavage, owner of one of the many ornamental plant nurseries for which Apopka is known, is hard pressed to pick her worst mouse experience since the infestation began last summer by chasing kids out of Camp Wewa.
Was it the morning she walked into her nursery and felt the squish-crunch of fresh mouse carcasses underfoot? The night mice chewed through plumbing, flooding her office and soaking her business records? Or just the daily ordeal of drowning and disposing of dozens of live mice caught in traps overnight?
Once Apopka falls, they'll swarm on down to Orlando. People won't be so fond of Mickey after that, let me tell you.
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Animal Escalation — Thursday, 4 January , 2007 @ 8:07 am
By Carl, Saturday, 30 December , 2006 @ 4:46 pm
Up here in the Florida panhandle in the Tallahassee area, we’ve been overrun by possum, racoon and congresscritter for years!