Mouse plague hits WA grain farmers as numbers surge in SA: ‘You literally can’t get away from them’
1mon 26d ago by aussie.zone/u/Gorgritch_umie_killa in perth@aussie.zone from www.theguardian.com
“Mice aren’t like other problems that farmers have. Because, if you’ve got a drought, you can go inside, and close the door and switch on the air conditioner and get a bit of respite from it. But, if you’ve got a mouse plague, you go inside and the mice are in the house and you literally can’t get away from them.”
I know this feeling of constant pressure from just having a few around and about the house. Knowing theres tens or hundreds...
Even one inside the house is one too many.
They piss and shit everywhere.
Really highlights the lax building standards we have tolerated for so long in this country that houses are not air tight let alone mouse tight.
Been doing work in my roof space after 50+ years of it being essentially untouched. The amount of piss and shit is just disgusting. My partner said the other week, why don't we just leave a spot that was hard to get to. No way, it was covered in shit, just disgusting to know what we've been living underneath.
I always feel like we've been spoiled by not experiencing some of the harsh realities of country life.
I remember reading about rodent plagues in the 19th century in the Oz country, beyond the more obvious things of them getting into food etc
A ham was in the larder, hanging from a hook. The mice worked out to climb across a ceiling beam, down the rope and ate the ham from the inside out, leaving just the outer skin, with a bunch of dead mice inside it.
People would put each of their 4 legs of their beds in a bucket of water in an attempt to keep them off the bed and get some sleep. Each morning, the buckets were full of drowned mice.
The yuckiest thing I read was that women who put on face cream at night would be woken up by the rodents licking it off their faces.
The yuckiest thing I read was that women who put on face cream at night would be woken up by the rodents licking it off their faces.
That's a new one for me. I'm surprised they'd approach a person, even when they're asleep.
nope, grew up in an old farmhouse and remember feeling a mouse run across my bare leg in the middle of the night
This comment thread is making me regret posting this story. Fucking christ, this is such a skin crawling comment section! 😂 ugggh!
Last big one here in SA I didn't keep on top of them and just about everything stored in the shed got covered in mouse shit and piss or chewed up even if it was in drawers or cupboard or stored in plastic bags. Lots of damage to books and magazines I didn't have room to keep inside that had to be thrown out. They can make a hell of a mess.
Thanks for the warning. I will have to make sure the traps are set and check things are stored securely. Might be my project for the next week or so.
I thought they meant the mice had the plague but no they’re saying mouse populations are at plague levels
We need more snakes!!