In August, the San Juan Basin Health Department confirmed that a burrow of prairie dogs ridden with plague-positive fleas was responsible for infecting a La Plata County woman with bubonic plague.
The revelation amounted to a tough news cycle for prairie dogs, which, as a species, already had enormous public relations problems in the area.
Indeed, though bubonic plague has its downsides – including hospitalization and death – the recent outbreak has been a boon for rodent exterminators in La Plata County. Since then, said Matt Salka of Absolute Rodent Control in Bayfield, business has been roaring.
“Business has exploded, yes,” he said Friday. “Since the plague, it’s gone crazy. People have gotten scared. The plague has helped me, and I know it’s helped a couple other people, too.”
Steve Pauli, of Prairie Dog B Gone in Mancos, said that this summer he’s been inundated with calls from people desperate to purge prairie dogs from their yards.
“I’ve had to turn them all down,” he said, citing health problems.
Pauli said he’s never lost any sleep over his prairie dog extermination work.
“They’re dangerous. They carry disease, and they’re a hazard to horses and cattle,” he said.
Hatred from some
While no one likes mosquitoes, and Durango’s downtown deer population is hardly popular, prairie dogs seem especially despised.
“I hate them,” said Pat Greer, a rancher in La Plata County. “They’re just no good. They’re incredibly destructive. They mow down the grass till there’s nothing left. This spring, one of my cows stepped in a burrow and broke her leg. I had to put her down – that’s $3,000.”
Gary Franzen, of Varmitgetters of the SW, said that in the last five years, “We’ve probably blown up some 250,000 burrows in La Plata County.
“I’m not even kidding,” he said. “I’ve done a huge amount of eradication, on ranches where horses are breaking their legs, at Escalante Middle School and Fort Lewis College. There, the concern isn’t just about burrows on the property, but disease as well.”
While local exterminators, ranchers and farmers were more or less united in calling for prairie dogs’ total demise, there was some disagreement about the best method.
Salka said he uses carbon monoxide, which he characterized as more humane than poison. Some favored explosions; others, poisoning.
Still others hoped the Black Death would decimate prairie dogs’ loathed ranks.
Greer said every week, one to three people “come up to our farm and shoot prairie dogs on our place. There’s an everlasting supply of them. I’ve heard people say they got 100 in one day. But they have to leave them where they shoot them because of plague. Plague is terrifying.
“For years on our farm, we were poisoning them, but do-gooders got rid of that. Now, you can only shoot them. I wish the plague would get rid of all of them.” he said.
Black Death’s visit
Greer may yet get his wish. Plague has plunged Colorado’s prairie dog population into crisis. Unlike squirrels, prairie dogs have never developed an immunity to bubonic plague, meaning single infections routinely result in whole colonies being smited across Southwest Colorado.
The consequences for the state’s prairie dog population have been devastating on a historic scale.
“We think the prairie dog population is just 1 percent of what it was in pioneer times,” said Joe Lewandowski, public information officer with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Despite the prairie dogs’ plummeting population, efforts to list the species as endangered have so far foundered.
But Lewandowski said, “A lot of conservation groups across the country have prairie dogs on their radar.”
Some conservationists worry that the rising tide of anti-prairie dog sentiment couldn’t come at a worse time for the embattled species.
Whereas advocates for endangered species often make magnificent, far-away predators – like snow leopards and Bengal tigers – the poster animals of their campaigns, prairie dogs enjoy no such star-power.
Franzen said though much of his recent career had been based on killing prairie dogs, as a species, they had positive qualities that, if better publicized, might sway some humans to their side.
“Their colonies are pretty tight-knit, and when they play together, there’s plenty of people who think they’re cute. Even I think they’re cute. But I’ve been in this business a long time, and these rodents just cause so many problems,” he said.
Lewandowski acknowledged that given prairie dogs’ reputation for mayhem and disease, few humans in La Plata County are willing issue a full-throated defense on behalf of the species.
“We can’t prevent people from exterminating prairie dogs on private land,” Lewandowski said. “But I hope I qualify as a pro-rodent voice.
“I would hate to see them wiped out. Our agency does a lot of work to try and protect prairie dogs. From a wildlife perspective, they’re what we call a ‘keystone species,’ because they bring value and balance to the ecosystem. They not only provide prey for lots of other animals, like badgers, raptors and snakes, but their burrows provide habitats for other wildlife, like burrowing owls,” he said.
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
Deterring the dogs
While battling prairie dogs is often necessary, here are a few tips from a biologist to deter them naturally.
Mesa Verde’s wildlife biologist Paul Morey cautions against shooting prairie dogs with lead ammunition because they are a keystone species that support predators, like hawks.
Studies have shown that California condors have died from feeding on dead animals shot with lead. So it is likely by leaving a field of dead prairie dogs shot with lead could enter the food chain and hurt predators, Morey said.
Mesa Verde National Park uses carbon monoxide poisoning and then covers up the prairie dog holes so predators won’t eat the carcasses.
He also suggests letting grass grow higher than 8 to 10 inches because they don’t feel secure in tall grass.
Setting up perches for raptors like a telephone pole can also draw in redtail hawks that will hunt them.
But there’s no panacea for controlling them, especially if your neighbors aren’t on board.
The Cortez Journal
