A growing mouse plague in eastern Australia is threatening grain and summer crop harvests there. The mouse situation in Queensland and New South Wales may also pose a threat to this year’s winter grain harvest.
Australian food inspectors have arranged an urgent video conference soon for the troubled farmers. The country’s grain growers and their advisors will be informed about the situation next Friday during a special online mouse update by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.
The mice are not only destroying crops but also damaging homes and businesses. In Queensland, the plague that started seven months ago is leaving a trail of destruction that has caused tens of thousands of dollars in crop losses and material damage, reports ABC Rural.
Farmers, livestock owners, entrepreneurs, and local residents are doing everything they can to control the mice, but the rodents seem unstoppable. Even inside homes and bedrooms, things are being chewed apart. Local Australian newspapers talk about hordes of thousands of mice and include photos with articles showing piles of dead mice.
Farmer Angus Dalgleish says the number of mice has increased so much that he can now see them scurrying in the fields during daylight. "If you drive around at night, you always see mice," he said. "But if you see them during the day, you know there are quite a few about."
The mice are damaging his sorghum, corn, and cotton crops. Mouse traps are sold out across virtually all of eastern Australia. The farmers are now hoping for rain, a lot of rain....