State to discuss rodent-control efforts on Maui
By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor
KIHEI, Maui — State health officials have scheduled a meeting on Maui to provide an update on rodent control efforts and to urge residents to continue to resist the mouse invasion on the home front.
A Department of Health community meeting on Maui rodent-control efforts, will be from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Monday at the Kihei Community Center.
Although an increase in mice has been reported on all islands, certain areas of Maui have been overrun by the little critters. Officials said the rapidly reproducing rodents were encouraged by winter rains that created an ample food supply following several years of drought.
Meeting set for Monday
The population explosion has been blamed for 12 recent cases of murine typhus, which is spread by fleas from infected mice.
There have been no new cases of the disease since Friday, according to Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo. Of the dozen cases reported in Hawai'i since March, 10 were on Maui. O'ahu and Kaua'i had one case each.
Murine typhus is a bacterial infection with flulike symptoms that include headache, vomiting, body aches, fever and rash. It is treated with prescription antibiotics.
Hawai'i averages about a dozen cases a year, but because the recent cases have occurred in a relatively short period, health officials have intensified rodent-control efforts. Crews have been setting hundreds of bait traps and spreading an oat mixture laced with zinc phosphate over large tracts of vacant land in Kihei and Lahaina.
Public health educator Gen Iinuma said yesterday it's likely the mouse population hasn't peaked.
Vector control workers yesterday checked traps that catch live mice to monitor changes in the population, but the data were not immediately available. Earlier monitoring indicated a fourfold increase in the number of mice caught.
The Health Department is still waiting to hear from the Environmental Protection Agency on a request for an emergency exemption that would allow the use of zinc phosphate on a much larger scale, said Herbert Matsubayashi, DOH environmental health chief for the Maui district.
Meanwhile, Haleakala Ranch removed its cattle from pastures adjoining the Maui Meadows subdivision in Kihei, a major hotspot for mice, to allow crews to treat the area and set up 200 bait stations, Matsubayashi said.
Rodent-control efforts have been assisted by a dozen or so members of the county-financed Emergency Environmental Work Force, which helped with mosquito eradication following a recent outbreak of dengue fever, and in efforts to eliminate miconia, an invasive plant threatening Maui rain forests.
"It's a good thing we have the Environmental Work Force, otherwise our staff would have to call for reinforcements," Matsubayashi said.
So far, health officials have focused on the Valley Isle's leeward communities, but one resident of Upcountry Maui said more needs to be done to get rid of the mice at higher elevations.
"I can't even let the kids out the door. We have mice crawling on our feet as soon as we walk out the door," said Kula resident James Jones, whose property is surrounded by farmland and empty lots.
"We're living in their world now."
Iinuma reminded pet owners that since murine typhus is carried by fleas, they should be vigilant in maintaining flea-control programs at home.
Opportunities for mice to find food, water and shelter can be minimized, he said, by not allowing pet food to remain in dishes, picking up fruit that has fallen from trees, and keeping yards clean.
