September 2, 2012

The insulated tent cabins are killing people.

Deer mice — carrying hantavirus — nest between the double walls. 2 have already died, and 10,000 are at risk.

20 comments:

rhhardin said...

Armstrong and Getty say they're worried because they always made necklaces out of mouse droppings with their kids when camping.

bagoh20 said...

If you hang around the mouse blogs, you hear the truth: The cabins aren't the problem - they like to wipe their asses on your tooth brush at night.

Wince said...

I got a nasty upper respiratory infection after I tore down an old treehouse, which eventually ended up in me making a gasping 911 call after I went into respiratory distress.

You want to at least hose-off or wear a mask when working around any old structure that might have been inhabited by rodents and where their dried feces can become airborne dust.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Curry Village wall tents are for city people. Nuff said.

F said...

EDH: That respiratory distress: was it intense?

Wince said...

F said...
EDH: That respiratory distress: was it intense?

No, I was a home, not camping at Yosemite in a tent.

Get it, in tents.

Seriously, I was coughed-out and couldn't draw a breath. Scary shit.

David said...

Only two dead mice so far? So lucky.

F said...

EDH: Hey, that was MY joke!

Wince said...

F said...
EDH: Hey, that was MY joke!

Hey, you didn't build that joke on your own.

edutcher said...

Signature, huh?

Sounds like another of Barry's fund-raising schemes.

Synova said...

It's more likely that someone stopped putting out rodent bait, poisoning anything that took up residence in the walls.

Because poison is bad.

jungatheart said...

I wonder how this factors into people who get mice in their RVs?

mariner said...

deborah,
I wonder how this factors into people who get mice in their RVs?

It will factor into them as easily as anyone else.

(I couldn't help myself there.)

Rodents are very serious health hazards. Period. Wherever they're found, and wherever they relieve themselves.

Unknown said...

I bet these tents were some kind of newfangled "green" structure.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

I told my psychiatrist that sometimes I think I'm a pup tent, and sometimes I think I'm a four-man tent.

He said I'm just two tents.

Paddy O said...

My parents house in the mountains at a few year infestation of deer mice. Cute little things.

But, I really was worried anytime I was moving stuff in and out of storage spaces up there.

From what I've heard, something near 100% of deer mice are Hantavirus carriers in California.

The danger really is only in a longterm buildup of feces in an enclosed space, so it sounds like the problem was more in the maintenance and cleanliness of those cabins. Mice just do what they do.

On the Channel Islands off the coast they have periodic mouse infestations. Population booms and busts. I was camping on Anacapa you could feel them running over your feet while sitting at the campsite table, and see them crawling on the tent at night.

Made me cheer the owls I heard hooting at night.

CatherineM said...

Another reason not to go camping. I will add this to the list.

Gross story Paddy O. Sounds like you were camping in the NYC subway tunnels. Ew.

Æthelflæd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Æthelflæd said...



I hate the phrase "at risk". Gracious, we are all at risk every second of every day for something to go kablooie or fall on us or infect us or whatever.I can think of many other things those campers are probably risking besides the deadly mouse cooties.

mariner said...

PaddyO,
The danger really is only in a longterm buildup of feces in an enclosed space ...

Hantavirus is also excreted in urine, and becomes airborne when urine-soaked dust is disturbed.