Author Topic: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers  (Read 4850 times)

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Offline Ed.Kloonk

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #25 on: May 28, 2021, 09:23:33 am »
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 :-DD.

Alot of ppl are missing the whole point of the anger towards PETA. Them saying we shouldn't exterminate the vermin is indeed silly for them to say. However, it's their efforts in preventing people from keeping the pest numbers down in the first place that inhibits the ability to prevent plagues. It is that that needs to be examined.
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Offline beanflying

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #26 on: May 28, 2021, 09:37:15 am »
Important to note that PETA are complete Hypocrites and have a Cat and Dog Euthanasia count at their shelters that is ignored while preaching morality to others.
Coffee, Food, R/C and electronics nerd in no particular order. Also CNC wannabe, 3D printer and Laser Cutter Junkie and just don't mention my TEA addiction....
 

Offline magic

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #27 on: May 28, 2021, 09:42:25 am »
Meanwhile in Poland we have a plague of those filthy Spanish slugs.



I wonder what PETA would say about all the creative methods of killing them that our women come up with ::)
Because most women don't have the balls to "simply" stomp on those little shits...
 

Offline Zero999

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #28 on: May 28, 2021, 02:23:59 pm »
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. :popcorn:


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.
Point taken regarding not to take Sky News too seriously, but she was still foolish to mention catch and release. She should have known it would anger many and not further her cause.

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.
The media talk about this being a natural disaster, but it's man made. Humans released these pests and now have to deal with the consequences.

Some are advocating stronger poisons to deal with the mice, but how are they going to avoid collateral damage?

If you kill all the cats, you'll have more mice. It's easier to kill cats, than mice, since they're larger and fewer of them. There's no simple solution to the problem.
 

Online nctnico

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #29 on: May 28, 2021, 03:35:24 pm »
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?
Mice operate mostly by smell so blinding them won't help much
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Online nctnico

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #30 on: May 28, 2021, 03:40:15 pm »
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.
Well... birds eat mosquitos. In the end the only real solution is to bring the natural balance back.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline Zero999

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #31 on: May 28, 2021, 04:07:04 pm »
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?
Mice operate mostly by smell so blinding them won't help much
It would make a good plot for a film though. :popcorn:

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.
Well... birds eat mosquitos. In the end the only real solution is to bring the natural balance back.
But how do we remove every creature which doesn't belong in Australia? It's far too late for that, given some of animals there are already extinct.
 

Offline Stray Electron

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #32 on: May 28, 2021, 06:15:11 pm »

Well... birds eat mosquitos. In the end the only real solution is to bring the natural balance back.

  Yes, birds do eat mosquitoes and cats do eat mice but a "natural balance" is not the answer unless you (humans) are prepared to live with hoards of mosquitoes and mice.  In a normal balanced eco system, predators only eliminate some of the their prey and not all of them. if they did then the predators themselves would then die off.

   What we as humans actually want isn't a "balanced" or a "natural" eco system but one in which the pests (mosquitoes, mice, etc) are completely removed. But with as little side effects as possible and without us having to do anything squeamish such as have to put salt of snails, or squish tomato worms or slugs. Or deal with mountains on dead mice.
 

Offline helius

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #33 on: May 28, 2021, 06:37:16 pm »
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.
I like that channel—it was where I learned about the Perlite in a bucket trap, which caught 3 rats at once when I used it.
Once the rodent climbs up to the rim of the bucket (provide a ramp or platform to make that easier), the surface of floating perlite appears to be solid. So they walk out across it to approach the bait (I put a Snickers bar on a large bottlecap so it would stay above the surface). Once they are standing on the perlite, it shifts like quicksand and they fall in and can't swim because of all the perlite above them.

Around here I haven't heard anyone complaining about killing rodents, which is a bit surprising given all the other crazy ideas afoot. What does get mentioned is that poisoning them has collateral effects on predators like hawks, which is counter-productive since predators are what control the pest population.
« Last Edit: May 28, 2021, 06:40:44 pm by helius »
 

Offline Zero999

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #34 on: May 28, 2021, 06:53:54 pm »

Well... birds eat mosquitos. In the end the only real solution is to bring the natural balance back.

  Yes, birds do eat mosquitoes and cats do eat mice but a "natural balance" is not the answer unless you (humans) are prepared to live with hoards of mosquitoes and mice.  In a normal balanced eco system, predators only eliminate some of the their prey and not all of them. if they did then the predators themselves would then die off.

   What we as humans actually want isn't a "balanced" or a "natural" eco system but one in which the pests (mosquitoes, mice, etc) are completely removed. But with as little side effects as possible and without us having to do anything squeamish such as have to put salt of snails, or squish tomato worms or slugs. Or deal with mountains on dead mice.
In most parts of the world, we don't get plagues of pests, because the ecosystems are in balance. People occasionally have problems with rats and mice in Europe, for example, but never massive swarms of them like in Australia, because there are plenty of natural predators. Plagues normally occur due to human interference, in the ecosystem. I accept there are a few exceptions, such as locusts, in Africa, but it isn't the norm.
 
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Offline magic

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #35 on: May 28, 2021, 10:48:46 pm »
Well, we do have some predator deficit in Europe too and as a result there are things like boars roaming city streets scavenging for trash. Although recently, ASF appears to be taking care of those.
 

Offline VK3DRB

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #36 on: May 29, 2021, 01:59:32 pm »
Let's imagine the effort that has been put in to fight COVID was used to fight these little bastards (sorry PETA, I should have said these little cute innocent micey wiceys that have as much right to procreate as us evil humans). Then maybe an electronic solution would be found. A certain frequency and amplitude. Has anyone tried knocking out a rat with a brat? If we could get Justin Bieber to throw eggs at the mice whilst playing the Justin Bieber Christmas Album through 1000W speakers, it would wipe the lot of them out. 
 

Online vk6zgo

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #37 on: May 29, 2021, 02:08:34 pm »
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?
Mice operate mostly by smell so blinding them won't help much

Well it would make it easier "to cut off their tails with a carving knife!"
 

Online vk6zgo

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #38 on: May 29, 2021, 02:26:02 pm »
Mice plagues have happened in rural New South Wales for more than a century.

My Dad was born in NSW, lived there as a boy before coming to Western Australia, & remembered the mouse plagues vividly.

They even gave  rise to a saying:"Heads on 'em like mice!" to refer to something of which there were many.

For instance, if you were looking for Electronics Geeks, there are "heads on 'em like mice" on eevblog!

 

Offline Sal Ammoniac

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #39 on: June 01, 2021, 03:30:57 pm »
Alot of ppl are missing the whole point of the anger towards PETA.

I'm a card carrying member of PETA -- People Eating Tasty Animals.
"That's not even wrong" -- Wolfgang Pauli
 
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Offline Ed.Kloonk

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #40 on: June 01, 2021, 09:36:52 pm »
Alot of ppl are missing the whole point of the anger towards PETA.

I'm a card carrying member of PETA -- People Eating Tasty Animals.

"I didn’t claw my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables”
iratus parum formica
 

Offline magic

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #41 on: June 01, 2021, 09:44:36 pm »
How did wild cats actually become such a big deal recently?
Haven't they been around Australia for a few centuries already?
 

Offline Ed.Kloonk

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #42 on: June 01, 2021, 09:53:16 pm »
How did wild cats actually become such a big deal recently?
Haven't they been around Australia for a few centuries already?

Short answer, without trying to put too finer point on it..

We have gone from being able to shoot the damn things on sight to not being allowed to do anything.
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Online vk6zgo

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Re: Mouse plague deals fresh blow to Australian farmers
« Reply #43 on: June 01, 2021, 11:29:11 pm »
How did wild cats actually become such a big deal recently?
Haven't they been around Australia for a few centuries already?

More people, more neglected cats going feral.
Also, cats can really only occupy more territory at cat walking speed, plus, if they have a good hunting area, they will stay there till their numbers outgrow the food supply.

Cities expand rapidly, till what was once "bush" becomes suburbia, putting habitat loss pressure on not only native animals, but also feral ones.
In any case, "recently" is a relative term----50 years ago there were baiting programs for ferals.
 


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