Mouse plague in Australia!

Science & Environment Science & Environment: Chat / Discussions
21 
That looks like eastern Ozzy to me Brucy ??
 Do you mean to say you get infested EVERY summer ?

Donkeyman!
22

That was a stunning report. I’ve never seen anything like it!

It seems to me that if the “solution” of using poison sends the mice to water sources, it just creates an even greater hazard, but I am not sure what is.

I can’t help but feeling sympathy for both the people and the mice. It’s a bad deal.

23

But they have to FIND a water source SM?
Ozzie is classed as a water deficient country so mice usually die
before they find water!
BTW, l thought it was oxygen mice look for not water??
Maybe this varies with what poison is used ?

Donkeyman!
24

Good for you Assman you got something right, yes NSW is in eastern Australia. Pat yourself on the back.

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As for mice plagues I would guess that they occur somewhere in Australia every 10 or 20 years when conditions are exactly right, ie good harvest for food and wet conditions for moisture. Likewise if conditions are right we get locust plagues though the last one I can remember was when my kids were young - to this day I keep fly screen wire across the front of my car as a precaution.

The rain in the central west (of NSW) will not be enough to wipe the mice out but will reduce numbers because it will flood their burrows and kill the young (according to news reports today).

25

Well the floods we see on our telly look pretty big to me Brucy??
Definitely more than enough to drown a mouse ??

Donkeyman!
26

I would have thought because of the floods that all sorts of wild creatures who normally make their ‘homes’ under ground have got flooded out, so have had to leave their burrows, nests, tunnels etc to find new accommodation and a food supply pretty quick?

27

That is so Mups!
But don’t forget, one female can pop out six new little mouse’s
at one shot !!

Donkeyman!
28

Yes I know m’dear, but I was offering a possible explanation of why everywhere is inundated with them all of a sudden.
It made sense to me that one reason could be because they have all had to surface in their multitudes into the above-ground human world because their underground homes have been flooded. :slight_smile:

29

I agree Muddy. Years ago I used to see rabbits blinded and struggling quite a lot, but haven’t seen any for years now.

30

Of course they look big Assman, you are obviously thinking in terms of living on a relatively small European island and one mouse. Australia is a big country, the floods probably cover an area the size of England (as did last year’s bush fires) but it is only a tiny area of NSW. You just have no idea of the scale.

A town called Moree is copping the floods at the moment it is not that far inland but it is about 950km north west of me which is about the same distance as London to Milan. Moree is much closer to Broken Hill than me but it is still 850km and a time zone away yet all are still in NSW. (Those are straight line distances, it is a lot further by road.)

I don’t know how these floods will affect the mouse plague, it will no doubt reduce their numbers but mice can swim and climb and it will take a biblical flood to get rid of them. I think they will only be controlled by the cold weather as has happened in the past.