Image Credit - dnaindia
Millions of mice have infested Australia and they’re literally everywhere; bedrooms, kitchens, houses, garages, water tanks, and mice are also crawling onto beds and biting people.
It’s raining mice; quite literally. They’re everywhere; inside houses, on the walls, on the rooves, inside containers; they are everywhere, dead and alive.
Sounds like a nightmare, but this is the plague that has swept Australia in the last two weeks. In the rural areas, farmers are losing their harvest. People living in Australia are patching up holes and are shutting their doors and windows. The Australian government has declared a war on the tailed-army.
To control this plague, the government has now given the authorization to use an otherwise outlawed poison called ‘bromadiolone’. NSW farmers have sadly called this plague an "economic and public health crisis". They also had initially demanded that the government pay for 50% of the cost of baits.
Devastating Plague after many years:
This plague is being called one of the worst plagues in decades and started being reported around mid-March in Australia’s eastern states costing some farmers more than $100,000 in destroyed crops and damage to stored hay and grain.
Australia knows this. It is no stranger to mice plagues. Mice have terrorized the country through the ’80s, ’90s, and as recently as 2011. But some farmers say that this is the worst they have seen.
Image Credit - thesun.ie
Sounds like a nightmare, but this is the plague that has swept Australia in the last two weeks. In the rural areas, farmers are losing their harvest. People living in Australia are patching up holes and are shutting their doors and windows. The Australian government has declared a war on the tailed-army.
Image Credit - thesun.ie
What triggered this ‘Mice Apocalypse’?
Image Credit - theguardian
To answer that we must rewind to 2020; a year most of us would rather forget. But for the Australian farmers, it was a good year. A year of heavy rains. It rained more than the two previous years combined. The ground became fertile and there was the bumper harvest.
But no one saw the mice coming. The rains brought the mice by creating an ideal condition for the rodent army. Once they had a sizable army, the mice went straight for the harvest. The Wheat, The Barley; they infested it all. They also attacked hotels, food marts, and bakeries, child care centers and made no exception for all old age homes.
But no one saw the mice coming. The rains brought the mice by creating an ideal condition for the rodent army. Once they had a sizable army, the mice went straight for the harvest. The Wheat, The Barley; they infested it all. They also attacked hotels, food marts, and bakeries, child care centers and made no exception for all old age homes.
Image Credit - thesun.ie
A local farmer in Australia, Ron McKay stated, “At night, the ground is moving with thousands and thousands of mice just running around.” Two months on, the mice army has breached borders. It has invested an area stretching over 1000 km. From Adelaide to Brisbane via Melbourne and Sydney. The mice are chewing crops, electrical wires, machines and even biting patients in hospitals.
What is the Government doing to destroy this Plague?
What is Australia doing about the smelly-tailed army? It has declared war. Houses have been fortified. Strategies are being planned and traps are being laid. The Australian Government has announced a ‘Mouse Plague’ package worth 50 million dollars. This money will be mainly used to bait and poison the invading mice army.
People living in cities have been told to use steel wool to patch holes in their homes and to also seal their homes shut. As stated earlier, the government of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia has extended a support package of $50 million to farmers to deal with this devastating rodent plague that has affected farmers, community members, and the entire society.
A local farmer in Australia, Ron McKay stated, “At night, the ground is moving with thousands and thousands of mice just running around.” Two months on, the mice army has breached borders. It has invested an area stretching over 1000 km. From Adelaide to Brisbane via Melbourne and Sydney. The mice are chewing crops, electrical wires, machines and even biting patients in hospitals.
What is the Government doing to destroy this Plague?
What is Australia doing about the smelly-tailed army? It has declared war. Houses have been fortified. Strategies are being planned and traps are being laid. The Australian Government has announced a ‘Mouse Plague’ package worth 50 million dollars. This money will be mainly used to bait and poison the invading mice army.
People living in cities have been told to use steel wool to patch holes in their homes and to also seal their homes shut. As stated earlier, the government of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia has extended a support package of $50 million to farmers to deal with this devastating rodent plague that has affected farmers, community members, and the entire society.
Image Credit - thelatch
To control this plague, the government has now given the authorization to use an otherwise outlawed poison called ‘bromadiolone’. NSW farmers have sadly called this plague an "economic and public health crisis". They also had initially demanded that the government pay for 50% of the cost of baits.
Devastating Plague after many years:
This plague is being called one of the worst plagues in decades and started being reported around mid-March in Australia’s eastern states costing some farmers more than $100,000 in destroyed crops and damage to stored hay and grain.
Australia knows this. It is no stranger to mice plagues. Mice have terrorized the country through the ’80s, ’90s, and as recently as 2011. But some farmers say that this is the worst they have seen.
Image Credit - amusingplanet
In March, as a result of the ‘rampaging mice’, some farmers lost entire grain harvests, while hotels have had to close as they couldn’t keep the critters out of the rooms. The explosion in the number of mice has led to a shortage of mouse traps and baits for the people trying to deal with the infestation
Image Credit - ktla
Australia’s national science agency called CSIRO attributes the plague to an unusually abundant grain harvest, which caused a surplus of mice earlier in the season. It is stated that mice start to breed at six weeks of age and can have a litter every 21 days after that, meaning a pair of mice can give rise to 500 offspring in a season.
How does a plague like this affect people?
According to Victoria’s health department, there are a total of 2,200 species of rodents and shockingly Australia has more than 60 native rodent species and also three introduced pest species.
Australia’s national science agency called CSIRO attributes the plague to an unusually abundant grain harvest, which caused a surplus of mice earlier in the season. It is stated that mice start to breed at six weeks of age and can have a litter every 21 days after that, meaning a pair of mice can give rise to 500 offspring in a season.
How does a plague like this affect people?
According to Victoria’s health department, there are a total of 2,200 species of rodents and shockingly Australia has more than 60 native rodent species and also three introduced pest species.
Image Credit - thesun.ie
Rodents are highly capable of destroying food grains and they can also cause serious widespread damage to domestic households, commercial businesses, farms, manufacturers, and livestock.
Further, rodents can not only gnaw through materials but can also ruin supplies by excreting on them. Gross! Rodents can also cause diseases such as Leptospirosis and Typhus fever. They are also carriers of fleas or ticks that harm pets and humans.
Conclusion:
Mice are creating havoc from eastern Australia, Victoria border in the south to the northern state of Queensland. Rodents are invading houses, buildings and are mercilessly infesting farmlands leading to damage of crops and machinery worth millions. This is a National Emergency calling for international support.
All the nations need to step in and lend helping hands to Australia, to help the farmers of Australia, residents of Australia and as a whole, help Australia come out of this creasy crisis. If there’s not much that you can do, you should definitely pray for Australia and its citizens. God will hear your prayers and bring in a great change in that country.
Further, rodents can not only gnaw through materials but can also ruin supplies by excreting on them. Gross! Rodents can also cause diseases such as Leptospirosis and Typhus fever. They are also carriers of fleas or ticks that harm pets and humans.
Conclusion:
Mice are creating havoc from eastern Australia, Victoria border in the south to the northern state of Queensland. Rodents are invading houses, buildings and are mercilessly infesting farmlands leading to damage of crops and machinery worth millions. This is a National Emergency calling for international support.
All the nations need to step in and lend helping hands to Australia, to help the farmers of Australia, residents of Australia and as a whole, help Australia come out of this creasy crisis. If there’s not much that you can do, you should definitely pray for Australia and its citizens. God will hear your prayers and bring in a great change in that country.
Written By - Daniel Deepak Charles
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