Any grey nomad who has been given a fright by a scurrying mouse at a campsite, or who has had one of the pint-sized rodents gnaw away at wires in their car engine, won’t be happy to hear that a serious mice plague could be on its way.
Experts say that New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in particular may be facing huge numbers in the coming months and weeks.
CSIRO research officer and mouse guru Steve Henry told the ABC that a combination of ample food and shelter had led to perfect breeding conditions for mice … and trouble was looming.
“It’s pretty scary how quickly they can breed up,” he said. “They’re breeding machines and in just one season, a pair of mice can give rise to 500 offspring … it’s quite concerning.”
A mouse plague comes at a huge financial cost for farmers, with research showing that when mice numbers hit 200 head per hectare, the economic costs start stacking up.
Mr Henry told the ABC that when a plague strikes, it is usually about 800 mice per hectare.
“People in the towns complain if they have one mouse in their house, but when plagues hit rural areas, people have hundreds of mice in their houses,” he said.
Mr Henry is calling on farmers to implement monitoring and baiting programs well ahead of sowing to prevent a major outbreak.
He told the ABC that the best way to keep mice at bay was to deplete their food source.
“Historically, mouse numbers crash away very dramatically without food,” he said. “When mice are running around at such a high density, disease becomes prevalent … that, combined with a food shortage, leads to them eating each other.”
We got mice in the Winnebago after a torrential down pour in SA a couple of years ago. I would lie i bed at night and hear them scurrying in the roof space. Our biggest concern was what damage they were doing – eating wiring and insulation. We caught a fare few with just a generic mouse trap from the hardware store. We did meet a fellow traveler who also got a rat in his car – it ate his wiring ! Took him ages to fix the car !
Yes a $ 1200.00 repair bill on a Honda Integra due to wires (Motor) being eaten by the Mice, + a bad smell for many months as they got into the Car heather system.
February saw a mouse and rat plague in Warrimoo in the Blue Mountains. So horribly smelly. In the houses, running around the yards, cats thought they were great toys and helped bring them inside alive or just ignored them after a while. Plague seems to have passed now thankfully. 1 part plain flour to 1 part plaster works well, hardens in the stomach.