The entire Australian subcontinent is dealing with a mice plague and is battling the infestation with the help of a banned Indian poison. Hundreds of thousands of tiny rodents reproduced to give birth to millions of rats that are currently swarming across several Australian rural communities located in New South Wales, Victoria, & Queensland.
When did the mice plague begin? How big is it and what caused it?
According to a report by the Guardian, the infestation started well over the past 6 months and since than millions upon millions of mice have been the cause of nuisance in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
These mice are found by the locals running around in their homes, jumping on the ceilings, found in children’s classrooms, in a small vent found over hospital rooms, and even inside the stuffing of couches and armchairs. There were also reports of mice falling from the roof tops to the ground prompting the people to call the event as the “Mice Rain”.
The nuisance has got to a point where millions of dollars of damage of property and crops has been reported. The New South Wales government had to take a proactive measure and introduced a $50 million rescue package to help farmers and locals. According to various reports, the new mice plague has been labelled as one of the worst plagues Australia suffered through in decades.
As to what caused it, according to Live Science, the plague can be attributed to an unusually high yield of harvest which was a result of the bountiful rain Australia witnessed last year. Further, the factor of a mice’s short breeding cycle should also be considered as a pair of breeding mice can give birth to 6-10 offspring every three weeks.
"The ground just moves with mice"
After drought, fires and floods, rural farms in Australia are now battling a devastating mouse plaguehttps://t.co/NuRztAZj15 pic.twitter.com/q855M3tHo5
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 25, 2021
Australia’s Call for banned Indian poison ‘Bromadiolone’
With increasing reports of damages to property & crops the NSW government recently made an order of 5,000 liters of Bromadiolone from India. Adam Marshall, the NSW agriculture minister said-
“It’s actually the strongest mouse poison we can get anywhere on the face of the earth that actually will kill these things within 24 hours.”
Marshall also stated that the bromadiolone poison is equivalent of “napalming” the mice. Although it should be noted that the Federal government is yet to approve the poison’s emergency approval as the poison’s critics are of the opinion that the poison will kill the mice along with the animals that feed on the mice.
Earlier this month Marshall in an interview said that the state was at such a crucial juncture that if efforts are not made to curb the infestation, the state will face economic crisis.
“We’re at a critical point now where if we don’t significantly reduce the number of mice that are in plague proportions by spring, we are facing an absolute economic and social crisis in rural and regional New South Wales,”
-said Marshall.
How have mouse plagues historically ended?
Most plagues come to its evitable end when the food that mice feed on becomes scarce and conditions get colder which add stress to the mice population. Further, when diseases in mice spread rapidly, it leads to the mice getting sick and hungrier which makes them further vulnerable to infections and climatic changes. According to research, rat’s population crash somewhere between 2 days – 2 weeks.
How can plagues be controlled?
According to research, the one popular way of controlling mice population is making use of poison baits. For long-term control over rat population, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques are made use of in which a plethora of techniques are made use such as baiting, trapping, habitat change, food availability reduction, etc.
A Grains Research and Development Corporation research said that zinc phosphide can be used in mouse baits to deal with mouse numbers that are higher than average.
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