Australian town hit by worst mice plague 'in decades'; rodents bite people, invade homes

Rural areas in Australia’s New South Wales are infested with mice as the rodents invaded homes, swarmed on beaches, entered farmer’s barns, scurried in shops, pipes and machinery in hundreds of thousands. In the spine chilling footages that emerged online, the panic-driven rodents ran haywire in farms in Gilgandra, northwest of Sydney, destroying harvest, entering hospitals biting patients and electrical wires. Several thousands of mice stripped the shelves clean at the convenience stores and damaged food products as they nibbled their way through wreaking havoc and running amok in the populous state. 

In a statement to Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC), a farmer by the name of Ron Mckay said that at night thousands and thousands of mice covered the floor, moving around rapidly. Local reports cited at least 3 mice-related injuries among the patients at healthcare centers in Tottenham, Walgett and Gulargambone. Mice were found sailing inside water tanks, trapped in sealed food containers, pantries and wardrobes of homes, fouling the previously clean spaces with faeces and stinky smells as the mice plague, worst in decades, spread in NSW. 

A farmer in Wagga Wagga and a member of the NSW Farmers Association told The Guardian that mice infestation has incurred him $300,000 (£168,000) loss as the rodents destroyed crops. The only way out is hoping that heavy downpours drown the rodents in their bills, locals told reporters. The mice swarm destroyed acres of hay bales, and not sparing the grocer’s communities, the rodents invaded shops in Coonamble, north-west of Sydney.

On-farm rodent control programs 'ineffective' 

A local grocer in Gulargambone told Sky News that the staff was catching nearly 500 mice or sometimes 600 at night. “It’s pretty gross,” he said. He added that the shops stink and many mice die inside the supermarkets the locals relied on for foodstuff. People are “freaked out” and are going elsewhere for groceries, he said. The NSW government’s Department of Primary Industries found that the on-farm rodent control programs that rely on rodenticides alone to control and manage rodent problems aren’t effective or sustainable.