Rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are launching a program to stop people from leaving religious offerings at the summit of Mount Kilauea — including food they say attracts rats and cockroaches.
Rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are launching a program to stop people from leaving religious offerings at the summit of Mount Kilauea — including food they say attracts rats and cockroaches
Visitors leave 45 pounds of offerings from Halemaumau Crater each week, including flowers, bottles, money, incense, candles and crystals, park rangers say.
But food offerings are the most problematic, they say.
“The accumulation of rotting food and foliage attracts rats, flies, ants and cockroaches,” a park spokesman told the AP.
One ranger recently found a whole, cooked piglet replete with a papaya, orange and apple in a cardboard box, the park service said.
People also burn fake money which in Chinese culture is meant to aid people in the afterlife. Such fires are illegal, the park statement said.
Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has been in continuous eruption since Jan. 3, 1983.
Report by David Wikening
