Australian farmers battle mouse plague
Rat plague is terrorizing farmers across large parts of Australia; rodents run loose around houses and plunder grain fields.
It turns out that farmers are already under pressure unpredictable fuel and fertilizer supplies Due to the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran.
This new war has seen farmers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars either replanting crops devoured by rats or wasting valuable farming hours laying down feed – sterile seeds – laced with rat poison.
“It’s a big cost and it’s not just the price of feed,” says Geoff Cosgrove, 43, who runs a 14,000ha farm in Mingenew, Western Australia (WA), growing wheat, canola, lupine and barley.
“They really play with your mind; they run around at night on the ceiling, in the air conditioning units. You can hear them and smell them; they look like a rotting body.”
Cosgrove has been farming for 25 years and has only had to feed twice in that time. This year’s rat plague is “much worse than the one in 2021,” he says.
That year a rat plague ravaged many parts of Australia; Large areas of New South Wales (NSW) and parts of Queensland suffered. worst trouble in memory.
The situation in NSW was so dire that hundreds of prisoners forced to relocate After the rats caused major damage to their prison.
This time farmers in Western Australia first began reporting plague-like numbers of mice in March, and soon their neighbors in South Australia followed suit.
West Australian farmer Geoff Cosgrove hopes mouse numbers will decline as winter approaches [Geoff Cosgrove]
Buffer harvest increases mouse numbers
About two hours north of Cosgrove’s farm, agronomist and farmer Belinda Eastough, 59, remembers the rat plague that hit WA about five years ago.
“Last time [in 2021]they were in my bag,” he says on his 5,500-hectare farm at Nolba, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Geraldton, one of the hardest-hit areas.
“They were everywhere: on the floor, on the walls, in the pantry. But I didn’t see them in the pantry this year.”
That’s because, in grasslands, “they stay where the food is,” he says.
“We had a record-breaking harvest last year, which provides plenty of food for the mice.”
A large harvest means that a large amount of grain is dumped on the pastures during the processing of crops; This leads to an easily accessible and much-loved food source for mice.
“Then we got some summer rain,” Eastough says, which encouraged the growth of young green shoots.
“So instead of just steak, they ate steak and salad. It was basically a rat paradise.”
Belinda Eastough estimates there are thousands of mice in her wheat, canola and lupine pastures [Amy Schultz]
Eastough, who has been farming for almost 40 years, grows buckwheat, canola and lupine, with wheat exported to Southeast Asia for udon noodles or used domestically in biscuits, bread and pasta.
He estimates there are around 8,000 to 10,000 mice per hectare (about the size of a rugby pitch) in canola pastures.
“Sometimes we have had mouse outbreaks and when they run out of food the numbers will drop, but that hasn’t been the case this year.
“I’m living the nightmare.”
Farmers report thousands of mice eating freshly planted seeds [Australian Broadcasting Corporation/Chris Lewis]
‘Another headache’
The autumn months are the most important months for grain growers because this is the time when they plant their crops.
As an agronomist, Eastough advises farmers on their crops, and this year he’s urging them to forage as soon as possible after planting the seeds.
“If the feeder doesn’t follow behind the planter fast enough, the mice come at night and eat the seeds in the furrows,” he says.
“If you finish planting at 8pm and come back the next day, your crop rows will be incomplete.”
Eastough says farmers are very resilient, but have been hit hard by rising diesel and fertilizer costs since the Iran war broke out in February.
“We are now paying twice as much for fuel as we were paying two, three months ago,” he says.
“The mouse thing is just another thing thrown on, another headache.”
During the mouse epidemic in 2021, farmers created mouse traps with tubs filled with water [Getty]
‘A huge problem’
Steve Henry, a research fellow with Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, is an expert on rats and how to eradicate them.
Generally, he says, a plague is defined as 800 mice per hectare.
“But in Western Australia they’re talking about thousands and thousands of mice per hectare,” Henry says, particularly in the northern and southern planting areas.
On a recent visit to WA he counted 30 to 40 active rat nests when he walked the 100 meters of a one meter wide strip.
Multiplying this figure by 100 shows how farmers estimate mouse populations; This means there are at least 3,000 to 4,000 nests per hectare. The situation was similar in South Australia.
“This is a huge issue as it is a really important time for farmers,” he says.
Mice can start breeding at just six weeks old, he says, and can have six to 10 babies every 19 to 21 days.
“The onset is within two or three days of birth, they get pregnant again, so while they’re raising the first litter, they also get the second one pregnant,” says Henry.
He also highlights the psychological impact as well as the economic cost of the plague, as farmers were unable to leave their jobs after finishing their daily work.
“If you’re facing a drought, you can come in, close the door, turn on the air conditioning and take a breather,” he says.
“But if you’re dealing with mice, go in, close the door, go to your closet, the mice are in the closet…
“You sleep at night and mice run over your bed.”
Winter, rain and stronger forage can suppress the plague
Damian Ryan says rat outbreak is the worst he’s seen in his 50 years of farming [Australian Broadcasting Corporation/Chris Lewis]
Farmers have been desperate to get a stronger feed for months but have had to wait for permission from the national regulator.
Recently, this approval was given and the higher strength feed is now available to farmers.
Retired farmer Damian Ryan, 67, welcomed the move after weeks of hunting mice at his home and shed on his farm in Morawa, about 370 kilometers north of Perth.
He says he catches 20 to 30 mice in his house and about 150 in his shed every day.
It’s normal to deal with strange mice in his 50 years of scouring the ground, but “I’ve never seen one this bad.”
“These were plague-sized. You walk around at night and see rats running everywhere.”
Farmers have reported a decline in the number of mice in recent days due to cooler temperatures, rain forecast and stronger feeds.
Cosgrove is hopeful relief is on the way as winter approaches: “They’re finally stopping because it’s getting so cold and wet.”
