‘Worst’ mouse plague devastates farms in latest disaster to hit Australia

Andrew Leeson, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/reuters/06/14/australia-mice-farmer.jpg"/><figcaption>Grain farmer Norman Moeris disposes of mice caught in traps, as parts of New South Wales experience a &quot;mouse plague,&quot; in Gilgandra, Australia, May 30, 2021. <em>Jill Gralow, Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>After surviving years of crippling drought, farmers in eastern Australia are locked in a months-long battle with hordes of mice that are pouring through fields and devouring hard-earned crops. </p><p>Farmer Col Tink uses a broom to skittle hundreds of roving mice toward a makeshift industrial trap -- essentially a large tub of water where they drown.</p><p>It is a brutally simple attempt to slow the plague that has engulfed his farm -- near the rural town of Dubbo -- and thousands of other farms like it across eastern Australia.</p><p>But Tink&#x27;s efforts have barely made a dent. Mice continue to chew through grain and hay stocks while anything remotely edible remains under constant attack.</p><p>Skin-crawling videos of writhing rodent masses have been shared around the world along with reports of bitten hospital patients, destroyed machinery and swarms running across roads en masse.</p><p>The plague is the latest in a string of disasters to strike farmers in Australia. A years-long drought was followed by months of devastating bushfires from late 2019, before welcome rains became damaging floods in several regions. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/03/24/21/australians-warned-of-deadly-spider-plague-after-floods">Australians warned of deadly spider &#x27;plague&#x27; after floods</a></li></ul><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">VIDEO: Farmers are fighting a catastrophic months-long mouse plague in eastern Australia, amid fears the rodents will survive winter and boom again in warmer months <a href="https://t.co/FAjD5QTbj5">pic.twitter.com/FAjD5QTbj5</a></p>— AFP News Agency (@AFP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1404389401338208256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2021</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/09/20/palace-tells-filipinos-no-need-to-worry-about-bubonic-plague">Palace tells Filipinos: No need to worry about bubonic plague</a></li></ul><p>&quot;My dad&#x27;s still alive; he&#x27;s 93, and it&#x27;s the worst three years he&#x27;d ever seen in his lifetime, and I think it&#x27;s probably the worst mouse plague he&#x27;s seen too,&quot; said Tink, who mainly farms Brahman cattle.</p><p>But the prospect of this plague continuing through the southern hemisphere&#x27;s winter makes him fearful for preparations ahead of the next dry spell -- which is always on the horizon.</p><p>&quot;If we don&#x27;t get a real cold and fairly wet winter, I&#x27;m just a little bit worried what&#x27;s going to happen in the spring,&quot; the 65-year-old told AFP.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/life/07/02/20/the-pandemic-may-spare-us-from-another-plague-bedbugs">The pandemic may spare us from another plague: bedbugs</a></li></ul><div><strong>- &#x27;Chronic&#x27; infestations -</strong></div><p>The outlook is not good, according to Steve Henry, a research officer at Australia&#x27;s national science agency, the CSIRO.</p><p>&quot;When a mouse plague ends, they just disappear overnight,&quot; said Henry, who has been studying pest animals in Australia for nearly three decades.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re certainly not seeing that at the moment.&quot;</p><p>Mice are a feral pest in Australia, arriving alongside the first British colonists.</p><p>The tiny rodent is almost perfectly adapted to exploit the natural boom and bust of agriculture in the Australian climate, meaning plagues are not uncommon.</p><p>But numbers this year have been &quot;just astronomical&quot;, according to 74-year-old Terry Fishpool, a grain producer from nearby Tottenham.</p><p>Large numbers of rodents were reported as early as October, their population fuelled by a bumper crop after the worst drought in living memory.</p><p>Bill Bateman, an associate professor from Curtin University in Western Australia, said giant mouse plagues seemed to occur once a decade, but climate change could make them more regular.</p><p>&quot;If we no longer get those cold winters, such that we are providing resources for mice all year round, then this is going to become a chronic thing rather than an acute thing,&quot; Bateman said. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/06/10/20/pakistan-battles-plague-of-locusts-by-turning-them-into-chicken-feed">Pakistan battles plague of locusts by turning them into chicken feed</a></li></ul><div><strong>- &#x27;Napalming mice&#x27; -</strong></div><p>With the rodents scurrying on, the government has announced millions of dollars in support and reached for a more potent poison, which one minister likened to &quot;napalming mice&quot;.</p><p>Yet to be approved, bromadiolone works faster than the widely used zinc phosphide bait but also stays in the system of dead or dying mice longer.</p><p>Experts worry that it will potentially kill native wildlife who eat the poisoned mice.</p><p>&quot;The use of second-generation rodenticides is an extremely worrying step,&quot; Bateman, who works in the school of molecular and life sciences, said.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s a very slippery slope.&quot;</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/04/16/20/how-bubonic-plague-has-helped-russia-fight-the-coronavirus">How bubonic plague has helped Russia fight the coronavirus</a></li></ul><p>Extended use could create &quot;a bank of this toxin&quot; in the environment, killing natural predators and even risk poisoning humans through the food chain, Bateman said.</p><p>&quot;We are really going to be setting up trouble for ourselves in future, not just in terms of destroying our biodiversity but destroying our frontline defences against any future mouse plagues.&quot;</p><p>Henry said correct use of double-strength zinc phosphide, baiting while planting and removing alternative food sources could help curb the numbers if they did spike after winter.</p><p>But the focus on &quot;quick fixes&quot; also needed to shift to long-term solutions including more research into what triggers &quot;monumental plagues&quot;, he said.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/classified-odd/12/11/18/fruit-bat-soup-mouse-wine-disgusting-food-museum-opens-in-la">Fruit bat soup, mouse wine: Disgusting Food museum opens in LA</a></li></ul><p>Fishpool said farmers had little choice in the meantime but to plant crops and hope the damage wrought by mice wasn&#x27;t too severe -- comparing it to one of the nation&#x27;s favourite pastimes.</p><p>&quot;You could put it on horses and gamble it, but if you plant the crop, you can worry about it all year and gamble it.&quot;</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/classified-odd/06/09/21/daga-na-expert-sa-paghahanap-ng-landmine-sa-cambodia-pinagretiro-na">Daga na expert sa paghahanap ng landmine sa Cambodia, pinagretiro na </a></li></ul><div><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1692587" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>Plagues caused by the feral pest are not uncommon in Australia, but numbers this year have been "just astronomical," says one grain producer.</p>

Plagues caused by the feral pest are not uncommon in Australia, but numbers this year have been "just astronomical," says one grain producer.

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‘Worst’ mouse plague devastates farms in latest disaster to hit Australia

Andrew Leeson,

Agence France-Presse

Published Jun 15, 2021 06:03 AM PHT

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mouse plague

Australia mice

feral pest mouse

crippling drought

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