We have never heard of a National Park campground closing because of fleas. But that’s the plan tomorrow, June 25, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at South Dakota’s Badlands National Park, where rangers will close Sage Creek Campground. This is not a big deal for most RVers as the campground only allows RVs up to 18 feet long.
Title 36 CFR 1.5(a)(1) authorizes the park superintendent to temporarily close all or a portion of a park area in order to protect park resources and public health and safety.
The problem isn’t the fleas themselves but the prairie dogs who attract the tiny creatures. The park is closing the park to treat the prairie dogs’ mounds for fleas. The goal is to manage the spread of plague.
Park staff will be applying Deltamethrin dust (a new class of insecticide used on crops, livestock and home pest control) to the prairie dogs’ mounds. The temporary closure has been instituted in order to protect the prairie dogs and other park wildlife, and ultimately the health and safety of park visitors.
Visitors to Badlands National Park are advised to contact the park at (605) 433-5361 for more information.
More information about visiting Badlands National Park can be found at: Badlands National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov).
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Not too far away is a plague infested colony of prairie dogs marked by caution signage along the highway. Don’t need those fleas spreading.
Thank you, RV Travel! 🙂 Now THIS is interesting! I wish them well. Fleas can be a real annoyance. I am sure that every camper will prefer the temporary closing to getting fleas. Thanks again and SAFE travels! 🙂
Years ago, our company worked on a Federal project on a property that had multiple prairie dog colonies. Plague was so rampant due to the fleas that our wildlife biologists were tasked with live-trapping the critters, then dusting them with flea powder!
Not just prairie dogs. Went to the Florida Keys one year in our VW camper and stayed on Sanibel Island. One night with sand fleas and that was the end of that trip.