Yes, you read that correctly, there is a mice plague in NSW in case you haven’t heard. And no, they’re not the cute kind from Cinderella.
For the last six months, there has been an escalating mice plague gracing NSW and its surroundings because being in a global pandemic isn’t enough, according to the universe.
Southern Queensland, central NSW and northern Victoria farmers have faced the wrath of this ‘plague’ especially hard. The mice plague has even partially contributed to a Telstra outage in the NSW Riverina.
Telstra states that within hours of each other on the night of May 20, two separate faults impacted 44 mobile sites in the NSW Riverina, including fixed lines and ADSL services.
Chris Taylor, the regional NSW general manager for Telstra, alleges that one of the faults was a fibre cable being bitten clean-through in the rugged bushland of the Snowy Mountain region. The second fault of the power source was at an exchange near Temora.
“It’s believed it’s been mice that’ve caused the damage out there,” Taylor stated.
Basically, this whole incident is the modern remake of The Birds but it’s called The Mice and it’s real life.
But…where did this mice plague randomly come from?
According to Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) researcher Steve Henry, mice can survive through long periods of dry weather (aka, basically Australia’s entire climate) and then come out to play when there is more food and moisture.
Given the torrential rain that NSW experienced in late March, this is all makes sense.
Favourable climate conditions result in favourable conditions for crop production which therefore results in a mice breeding orgy. Henry states that mice breed ‘alarmingly fast’ with breeding at six weeks old, giving birth up to 21 days after and producing six to ten pups. Awesome.
This has put NSW farmers under extreme distress as the influx of mice threatens upcoming winter crops when some farmers already lost their entire summer crops of 2020/21.
One-third of these farmers have spent a whopping $20,000-$150,000 on mice baits. A tough spend, especially given the recent economic plummets they have endured from the 2019/20 bushfires and ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Now, NSW farmers are calling for a $25,000 rebate from the State government. NSW Farmers chief executive, Pete Arkle states that the rebate should be available for every affected farm business to pay for 50 per cent of the cost of mouse baits.
The plague extends to schools, homes and hospitals overrun while towns are inundated by the foul smell left by the mice.
I will NEVER get used to mice plagues no matter how many decades I live in Australia. Stuff. Of. Nightmares. Farmers, you are amazing! Aus Govt, get on this!! #miceplague https://t.co/xlHCfCSmeM
— Carmelan (@Carmelan) May 13, 2021
If only we could house mice like in Sweden…but at this point, it’s safe to say that no one would support the idea of a mouse house.
