Daily US Times: Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister declared this week: “The only good mouse is a dead mouse,” as New South Wales stepped up its war on mice with a plan to poison the plague infesting large parts of the state.
For months, mice have ravaged fields and infested homes in eastern part of the country, from the Victoria border in the south all the way to Australia’s northern state of Queensland, causing millions of dollars of damage to crops and machinery.
According to professional cleaner Sue Hodge, as winter approaches, the hungry rodents are even seeking shelter inside people’s houses.
Officials announced on Thursday that they had secured 5,000 liters of “one of the world’s strongest mice-killing chemicals” — a poison so potent it kills with one dose.
Not everyone is happy with that move. Some have expressed concern that laying chemicals to save crops from feral mice could taint food crops and kill local wildlife.
For many people in Australia, 2020 was a year to forget — but not for farmers, or mice, in New South Wales.
Almost as much rain fell in 2020 as in the previous two years combined, creating fertile land for a bumper crops.
Canowindra farmer Michael Payten sighed; “(We had) really bad years of drought, then a beautiful year in 2020, and this year is shaping up really well, too. But there’s always something.”
“This year it’s mice,” said.
The bumper harvest created by the heavy rain also created ideal conditions for the mice.
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