nivek
As Above So Below
Mouse apocalypse on the march across NSW, Qld, SA and Victoria, Australia, damaging crops and invading homes
Since early 2021 much of regional Australia is experiencing a mouse plague. The rodents have kept multiplying through the summer, and are expected to continue to do so even through the winter, potentially threatening crops. Now look at the result! It’s apocalyptic:
Hundreds of thousands of mice are ransacking sheds and houses, getting onto and into everything across NSW, Qld, SA and Victoria, Australia. The rodents are munching through crops and wiring, and to the horror of home owners they’ve even been found in bags of bread. The whole district smells of mice.
Rainfall and good harvest last year contributes to allowing the mice to spike in numbers.
“Mice start breeding when they’re six weeks old, and have a litter every 19 to 20 days after that. They can have up to 10 pups per litter, which means the rate of increase is really dramatic,” he said. “As soon as they have a litter of pups they fall pregnant again. They gestate the next litter while feeding the previous one.”
Farmers around Coonamble were lucky enough to have harvested before the infestation there began increasing in scale. But there is a risk the mice could continue breeding until autumn and threaten the next crop.
During a previous mouse plague in 1984, a farmer was shown on the evening news using a flamethrower to wipe out mice eating his crops.
A good cold snap, or lots of rain will do it. All their holes in the ground get filled up and they die. Another hope is that when the rodents multiply too quickly, they tend to deplete their food sources, spread disease among each other and start to eat their offspring. That makes the population crash away rapidly.
.
Since early 2021 much of regional Australia is experiencing a mouse plague. The rodents have kept multiplying through the summer, and are expected to continue to do so even through the winter, potentially threatening crops. Now look at the result! It’s apocalyptic:
Hundreds of thousands of mice are ransacking sheds and houses, getting onto and into everything across NSW, Qld, SA and Victoria, Australia. The rodents are munching through crops and wiring, and to the horror of home owners they’ve even been found in bags of bread. The whole district smells of mice.
Rainfall and good harvest last year contributes to allowing the mice to spike in numbers.
“Mice start breeding when they’re six weeks old, and have a litter every 19 to 20 days after that. They can have up to 10 pups per litter, which means the rate of increase is really dramatic,” he said. “As soon as they have a litter of pups they fall pregnant again. They gestate the next litter while feeding the previous one.”
Farmers around Coonamble were lucky enough to have harvested before the infestation there began increasing in scale. But there is a risk the mice could continue breeding until autumn and threaten the next crop.
During a previous mouse plague in 1984, a farmer was shown on the evening news using a flamethrower to wipe out mice eating his crops.
A good cold snap, or lots of rain will do it. All their holes in the ground get filled up and they die. Another hope is that when the rodents multiply too quickly, they tend to deplete their food sources, spread disease among each other and start to eat their offspring. That makes the population crash away rapidly.
.