Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers

[Trader]

Some Aussie could create an Electronic Rat Trap.  Just saying...

[Zero999]

I saw it on Sky News Australia a week ago. The situation is pretty dia down there.

I found it ammusing that PETA activists are campaigning for trap and release. They have no idea. Release them where? It's fair enough doing that in places where mice are native, but they have no natural predators in Australia, which is why there's a problem in the first place.

[SeanB]

There is a video channel on mouse traps, must be a very popular item in those areas at the moment. And yes, cane toads were imported to deal with mice, but became an even bigger pest problem.

Time for the farmers to get inventive and make some large volume mouse falls, and place them all over the area, and then get a mincer and boiler, and make hog food out of the mice.

[beanflying]

It happens twice every year this year is a bit up on normal. The Media is Bored with COVID so lets go look for the next ratings grab 

CSIRO's most recent mouse report in March documented mice numbers as "moderate to high" in many regions of southern Queensland, northern, central and southern NSW, north-western Victoria, parts of South Australia and around Ravensthorpe, WA.
The report said mice have continued to breed through summer and autumn and would reach "a peak at sowing of winter crops".
CSIRO forecast mice would appear in houses and sheds as temperatures drop.
Footage and photos of the mouse plague have created headlines around the world, with recordings of mice "raining" down from inside hay barns and swarms of rodents scuttling through homes and farms.

Peel back a Tarp loosely covering a pile of grain and surprise surprise what does the Media Camera catch "Ratings" 

[Rick Law]

It happens twice every year this year is a bit up on normal. The Media is Bored with COVID so lets go look for the next ratings grab 
...
...

Didn't you guys got rid of a lot of feral cats a few months back?  I recall seeing a news clips on that ~6 months ago, or may be 6-12 months ago.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Give every teenage boy in Australia a BB gun and turn them loose.

[nctnico]

Glue traps work great but you have to kill the mice stuck onto it quickly.

[RoGeorge]

 

[Zero999]

Glue traps work great but you have to kill the mice stuck onto it quickly.

In order to work, they have to be firmly secured, otherwise they can go missing.  Yes, they're not the most humane option. I'm even in favour of banning them in the UK, but desperate times, call for desperate measures, so wouldn't blame the Aussies for using them.

[magic]

I found it ammusing that PETA activists are campaigning for trap and release. They have no idea. Release them where?

From a helicopter into the ocean of course

[Zero999]

I found it ammusing that PETA activists are campaigning for trap and release. They have no idea. Release them where?

From a helicopter into the ocean of course

Here's the video I was talking about. Skip the first 45 seconds if you just want to hear the animal rights nutjob go on about not killing mice.

[sandalcandal]

It happens twice every year this year is a bit up on normal. The Media is Bored with COVID so lets go look for the next ratings grab 

CSIRO's most recent mouse report in March documented mice numbers as "moderate to high" in many regions of southern Queensland, northern, central and southern NSW, north-western Victoria, parts of South Australia and around Ravensthorpe, WA.
The report said mice have continued to breed through summer and autumn and would reach "a peak at sowing of winter crops".
CSIRO forecast mice would appear in houses and sheds as temperatures drop.
Footage and photos of the mouse plague have created headlines around the world, with recordings of mice "raining" down from inside hay barns and swarms of rodents scuttling through homes and farms.

Peel back a Tarp loosely covering a pile of grain and surprise surprise what does the Media Camera catch "Ratings" 

Statement from CSIRO "A mouse plague of this sort happens about every 10 years."
https://www.csiro.au/en/news/news-releases/2021/mouse-plague-in-queensland-and-new-south-wales

High mouse populations are becoming a persistent problem
Until recently, spikes in mouse populations had been followed by population crashes and subsequent years free from problematic mouse numbers.
Now, higher populations are becoming a persistent, rather than intermittent, problem.

https://www.csiro.au/en/research/animals/pests/mouse-control

I saw it on Sky News Australia a week ago. The situation is pretty dia down there.

I found it ammusing that PETA activists are campaigning for trap and release. They have no idea. Release them where? It's fair enough doing that in places where mice are native, but they have no natural predators in Australia, which is why there's a problem in the first place.

Here's the video I was talking about. Skip the first 45 seconds if you just want to hear the animal rights nutjob go on about not killing mice.

I would strongly recommend against paying any attention to Sky New Australia. They have a strong tendency to distort "facts" https://youtu.be/zuXdl69iUS4 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/24/sky-news-australia-is-tapping-into-the-global-conspiracy-set-and-its-paying-off

[langwadt]

https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/ngslo9/homemade_mouse_trap_to_help_combat_the_mice/

[Trader]

https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/ngslo9/homemade_mouse_trap_to_help_combat_the_mice/

[Trader]

[NiHaoMike]

Might it work to use scanning high power lasers (relatively cheap nowadays) to blind the mice so they'll have a harder time escaping from predators? I suppose the biggest problem with that idea is making sure the lasers don't blind anything other than the target mice.

Or maybe just stick to the high voltage electrodes with a bit of peanut butter smeared on them.

[beanflying]

The correct time to look at this was Spring last year as the weather started to warm and the long dry spell was ending and then get really serious about it when it first became apparent in January February it was going to be a worse than 'normal' year. All they can do NOW is minimize the issue and then what is needed is a cold wet winter to knock the bulk of them on the head and then get serious about control leading into Spring this year in 3-4 months.

The most effective trap for this sort of location is some sort of drop mechanism (spinning rail or seesaw) into a bucket of water. Poison baits around Silos and storage work too but are still best when done in conjunction with a fall trap. It needs to be low cost, low tech, and robust.

JANUARY News Report so this is not New News https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-22/mice-rats-wreak-havoc-across-nsw-and-qld/13078798

[floobydust]

Youtube channel Mousetrap Monday
He has some high volume mouse/rat traps that are basically variations of walking a plank and falling into water and drowning. The guy then puts the dead mice out in a field. Vultures, racoons, etc. have a dinner feast.
There's a new trap RinneTrap "flip & side" that looks pretty good. The electric traps don't do that great, the mouse just lies there dead or leaps off the electrodes.

There must be a predator missing in Australia's ecosystem? The place is full of scary critters, I wonder what usually ate mice there.

[beanflying]

Youtube channel Mousetrap Monday
He has some high volume mouse/rat traps that are basically variations of walking a plank and falling into water and drowning. The guy then puts the dead mice out in a field. Vultures, racoons, etc. have a dinner feast.
There's a new trap RinneTrap "flip & side" that looks pretty good. The electric traps don't do that great, the mouse just lies there dead or leaps off the electrodes.

There must be a predator missing in Australia's ecosystem? The place is full of scary critters, I wonder what usually ate mice there.

The first introduced pest arrived here in 1770 wearing a poofy wig and many other pests followed. We do have a native marsupial Rat and small mouse sized ones too but the introduced ones including their cousin Rattus Rattus with farmed grain/crops as food supplies thrive.

[james_s]

Farms in in this part of the world have cats, they're highly efficient hunters that feed primarily on small rodents like mice. Cats have served to control the mouse population for centuries, it was one of the primary reasons they were domesticated.

[beanflying]

Farms in in this part of the world have cats, they're highly efficient hunters that feed primarily on small rodents like mice. Cats have served to control the mouse population for centuries, it was one of the primary reasons they were domesticated.

Meanwhile also wiping out native Marsupial populations and severely depleting Bird populations and diversity. You don't get something for nothing and introducing additional Cats that is still a pest in its own right is not the solution.

https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive-species/feral-animals-australia/feral-cats#:~:text=Feral%20cats%20threaten%20the%20survival,small%20to%20medium%2Dsized%20mammals.&text=They%20are%20found%20all%20over,grasslands%2C%20wetlands%20and%20arid%20areas.

[james_s]

Well they're native here, or at least they've been around for as long as Europeans have been. I'd much rather have a bunch of cats around than a bunch of birds and rodents and stuff, I never did like birds, they crap all over my car and wake me up in the morning but whatever. It's true you don't get something for nothing, and really the most destructive pests on this planet by far are humans. You have to spay/neuter the cats so they don't breed out of control.

[beanflying]

Well they're native here, or at least they've been around for as long as Europeans have been. I'd much rather have a bunch of cats around than a bunch of birds and rodents and stuff, I never did like birds, they crap all over my car and wake me up in the morning but whatever. It's true you don't get something for nothing, and really the most destructive pests on this planet by far are humans. You have to spay/neuter the cats so they don't breed out of control.

That is a bad argument for the Cat. They are more or less the top predator in Oz in particular and already out there is the number of Millions unchecked and feral. The culling campaign is a band aid on an amputation given they live over the entire country including some of the remotest areas. They are nothing like the cute and cuddly housecat that get a trip to the Vet at 12 weeks for a snip. In some of the areas shown with the Mice issue the nearest Vet for example might be 2-300km+ away for a start.

Pre 1770/1788 there was no Mice or Rattus Rattus and no Cats or Rabbits or Foxes or Cane Toads or Pigs or ..... Their common ancestory is fairly recent and the Damage done is huge.

[tom66]

Here's the video I was talking about. Skip the first 45 seconds if you just want to hear the animal rights nutjob go on about not killing mice.

But that's not what the activist said (I can't believe I'm defending PETA.)   She would prefer 'catch and release' but she understands that's not realistic in a scenario like this (the implication is of course they will be killed though she doesn't say that.)  She wanted the government to intervene more before this became a problem, which is absolutely the only way you stop such a plague.

The host (along with bundling in climate change and wildfire management, y'know, things with actual science behind them) pushes this as a big anti-intellectual conspiracy.  Not surprising given Sky News Australia is owned by Murdoch, and Australia has many fewer media fairness regulations compared to e.g. the UK.

[VK3DRB]

https://www.3aw.com.au/the-3aw-interview-that-left-tom-elliott-questioning-where-society-is-headed/

According to the cafe-latte sipping Greens in PETA, I am a serial killer. I have murdered while families of mice, subjecting them to a terrible death - poison, decapitation, and running over them with a motor mower ripping their babies to shreds .