OUR NEIGHBORS: Feral dogs, mosquitos and vipers also are enemies in Iraq

When the military was passing out weapons for battle, Roger Safarik was handed a six-foot pole and a machete.

Last summer, the Palmer resident and master sergeant in the Air Force Reserves was stationed at Kirkuk Regional Air Base in Northern Iraq. His duty: pest control.

“The snakes were the thing people were most afraid of,” Safarik said. “Feral dogs, cats and foxes were a major conveyor of rabies. … The mosquitos do get quite bad, too.”

Safarik started his extermination career when he enlisted in the regular Air Force many years ago. After growing up on a family farm in Nebraska, he said he volunteered for the duty because he had experience killing pests.

Added to that, Safarik said not one critter gives him a moment of hesitation or fear.

“Not even hornets. I love killing hornets’ nests,” he said.

When he got out of the regular service, Safarik did what any ex-military man does who loves his job but not the pay. He was hired by a civilian contractor. But rather than embassy security or escorting diplomats, this contractor provided extermination services on Fort Richardson. He joined the reserves, and his squadron is stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

In March of last year, he was called to active duty in Iraq. The American mission in the region, he said, was to encourage cooperation between the Sunni and Kurdish populations of the northern part of the country. But the best way to ruin a good day of negotiations is to come home to a stinging scorpion in your sleeping bag. This is where Safarik came in.

Safarik said he heard rumors of camel spiders, which are reported to be the size of dinner plates and able to run 30 miles per hour. But, he said almost with a tinge of regret, the spiders were not too bad where he was stationed.

What they did have, he said, were desert sand vipers. These snakes can get up to four feet long and are packed with poison. They like to hide underneath debris and building materials, striking when soldiers move the cover.

“But when I was over there, nobody was bitten,” he said.

Asked if this a testament to his success, Safarik said his efforts were partially to credit. When someone reported a snake or a location that looked suspicious, he would respond. The most effective method for dispensing a sand viper is catching it with a snake stick and chopping its head off with a machete.

Safarik also said education is key. Troops were told where sand vipers live, what to look out for and the seriousness of the situation. Response to a bite has to be quick, and the victim has to be flown to a nearby hospital.

In addition to snakes, mosquitos are not just a nuisance but a safety threat as well. The swarms would chew up security personnel, making it a nightmare for those who pulled nighttime guard duty. Additionally, the United Nations had peace keepers from Africa on base, Safarik said. If one was a carrier for malaria, mosquitos could transmit the disease to other people, he said.

The mosquito larvae grew in the ponds, lagoons and drainage ditches all around the base, Safarik said. They would spray mosquito killer in the areas where people worked, he said, until the 120-degree summer heat took care of them the natural way.

As for the feral animals, Safarik said it was reported that a minimum of 25 percent of the stray dogs and cats were carriers of rabies. Safarik said they used live traps to catch the animals, which were then taken to the veterinarian technician to be euthanized.

All of this was more than enough to keep Safarik busy during his six-month stint in Iraq. He worked six days a week, sometimes eight hours a day, sometimes 13 hours a day. On top of that, he was on call around the clock because sand vipers typically hunt at night.

Safarik is now back in the relatively mild confines of Alaska dealing with the rodents and other household pests of Fort Richardson. He said he was happy to serve his country, and he thinks he won’t get called up to active duty again this year. But, being in the reserves, you never know, he said.

“They can call us up and say, ‘We are having a problem with rats in Haiti. You know about that. You’re going to Haiti,’” Safarik said.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.