Rural areas in New South Wales are infested with mice.
These rodents have invaded homes, entered farmer’s barns, destroyed shops and valuable machinery.
In the footage that emerged online through New South Wales Farmers, the panic-driven rodents ran haywire in farms in Gilgandra, northwest of Sydney.
These mice have not only destroyed harvest but also bit patients and electrical wires in hospitals.
In a statement to ABC, a farmer said that at night thousands and thousands of mice covered the floor, moving around rapidly.
Mice were found sailing inside water tanks, trapped in sealed food containers, pantries and wardrobes of homes, fouling the previously clean spaces with faeces and stinky smells as the mice plague, worst in decades, spread in NSW.
A local grocer in Gulargambone told Sky News that the staff was catching nearly 500 mice or sometimes 600 at night.
“It’s pretty gross.”
The NSW government’s Department of Primary Industries found that the on-farm rodent control programs that rely on rodenticides alone to control and manage rodent problems aren’t effective or sustainable.
NSW Minister for Agriculture Adam Marshall said:
“I have been meeting with NSW farmers frequently on this issue, and at our most recent meeting, they had no clear suggestions on how we can tackle this problem. This shows how difficult mice are to manage. Fundamentally, the regulation of what we are able to use against these pests sits with the APVMA. If we don’t have what we need, it needs to be sorted out at a federal level. If it was up to me, I would task my department with finding an off-label solution, so our farmers have what they need to fight back.”
Because of this mouse plague, New South Wales Farmers is also seeking financial assistance.
