Australia, mice problem

[Summersnake]

Been reading about this ,and just wondering,..do they not have any natural predators? ..the photos are horrendous,there are just to many to deal with ,I know Australia has birds that nest on the ground ,so this is why no cats I expect..
Must be so awful to be in the middle of this ,.I read that the mice will end the plague themselves by ripping each other’s heads off ..
What conditions lead to this situation,is it a regular cycle and it’s just v bad this year ..would love to know more ,or hear from anyone in the thick of it ,and how they are coping ,I simply can’t imagine how awful it must be

@Providora

It's a rural thing, not in built up areas.

I'm not going to post any links because they're horrifying, but it's not on a scale that any amount of cats or dogs could deal with! Millions and millions of the buggers swarming around like a moving carpet.

It's not just rural. I'm in Canberra, suburban, built up and we have mice, as do most people in the area. Here it started just over a week ago, the roof is full of them and we've had them in the house. Baits and traps are hard to get now, they sell put as soon as they're restocked.
Snakes and birds are the natural predators of mice, but it's the first week of winter now so there's not a lot around. Give it 12 weeks and the snakes will come.....I'm barely holding it together knowing the mice are here....if the snakes hit, that's the end of my sanity

@Chubbyguts most people in big Australian cities see Canberra as rural but yes, I take your point, anywhere on the rural fringe will be affected.

@Chubbyguts what area of Canberra are you in? I’m moving there shortly and want to avoid the mouse plague 😂

[quote Providora]@Chubbyguts most people in big Australian cities see Canberra as rural but yes, I take your point, anywhere on the rural fringe will be affected.[/quote]
Er, no they don't. I've lived in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. I'd say most people are quite aware that Canberra is a city, being the capital of the country. It has rural surrounds just like every other city in the country. It's very green and bushy, being the only entirely planned-from-the start capital city, but it isn't rural.

[quote MoppaSprings]@Chubbyguts what area of Canberra are you in? I’m moving there shortly and want to avoid the mouse plague 😂[/quote]
South Canberra, minutes from Parliament (so rural )
They're all over though, I don't know that you could avoid them forever. Might be lucky ! Bring baits and traps with, they're hard to get here !

Dispelling a few misunderstandings (as an Aussie):

Last big Bushfires affected a relatively small area of a HUGE country, so unlikely to have any effect on future plagues (if anything, it might help the plague along).

The areas affected by the mouse plague are, again, restricted to certain parts of certain States (& Territories). So not everywhere. I’d have to drive days and days to see it from where I live, for example. It’s likely bigger news in the UK than it is in here, in States that are not affected (yet?!). So if you were appalled by the idea of mouse or snake plagues, you could live in lots of other parts of Australia in theory. Like millions of square kms.

Now consider whether ANY amount of natural predators (cats, birds, etc) could deal with BILLIONS suddenly-appearing mice? Just because you like eating doughnuts doesn’t mean you could eat 400 a day, am I right?

Please don’t send us your spare cats, it’s the introduction of non-native species that got us into this mess in the first place. The mice arrived on the earliest European ships. Along with bugs, foxes, rabbits and others, causing us hundreds of years of huge headaches. Also, house cats are kept indoors on purpose here (by ethical owners) to prevent predation of native species (birds, reptiles and mammals). It’s a big problem.

Other than that, thanks for any sympathy you send our way... we do seem to have more than our fair share of natural and unnatural disasters and it must be horrible for the farming families going through this. Puts our new lockdown into perspective, for sure!

Good grief @Chubbyguts it was a joke, hence the big grin. I've worked for a Canberra-based employer for 30+ years and the locals fondly describe it as a big country town or 'the bush capital', the geography is nothing like your traditional big city.

@Chubbyguts, thanks for the tip!

Where I live we have the cassowaries (really, they are beautiful), salties and no mice plague. So swings and roundabouts!

@Providora

Good grief *@Chubbyguts* it was a joke, hence the big grin. I've worked for a Canberra-based employer for 30+ years and the locals fondly describe it as a big country town or 'the bush capital', the geography is nothing like your traditional big city.

When I first came to Australia in the mid-2000s, Canberra used to attract a hardship allowance for diplomats. It was about its being a long way from Sydney/beaches/shops:o

There aren't mice plagues across the entirety of Oz!

Where we live, semi-rural, there's just the normal type of animals about. The plague is horrible in the areas it's in but it's not everywhere.

We have them here in west NSW and it is difficult. They are in your washing machine in the morning, there are dead ones in your pool after overnight, and there are a hundred still paddling in your pool after falling in overnight. They eat the cords to the electrical wiring in houses and cards, they are everywhere.

We have 4 cats, and they can’t keep up - of course they can’t. As everyone has said, it’s due to it being the first year after the drought and rainfall and other conditions have created perfect breeding conditions for mice. There are less natural predators right now, but in time they will build up again too. Winter only just started on 1 June, and the cold will also help.

We tell ourselves this, but it’s very hard though. Mice droppings everywhere. Not having clean beds/kitchen. Eating all out stored crops, ruining cars and electrical items, and the smell of rodents and dead mice everywhere. I worry about the children seeing a casual approach to death and it impacting them.

I read the plague will end very suddenly with the mice killing each other ,by biting their heads off ,is this true ?

I just wanted to say ,that I think you are amazing ,those of you coping with this ,I know you will say ,well we have no choice ..but seriously I take my hat of to you ,you really are made of strong stuff to cope with this ...

@Nitpickpicnic I think you need to get a sense of humour...Do you really think it was a serious remark that we should ship out our cat population? Was obviously tongue in cheek 😂

Need a giant cheese sandwich to trap them in

@Winkywonkydonkey this is absolutely correct. Huge cheese sandwich and spare cats would work.... or harness up the local crocs and ride them through infected areas, herding them in to the sea?

I like mice. Have had many as pets

But even this would freak me out a little.

I was reading about this, a farm which described itself as fairly small for Oz dropped 1 billion bait blocks and they all disappeared and they still have a sea of mice.

They need to find a bait that makes them infertile ..stops them breeding .. then it should be Easier to control

Ex mil on her way ....she can lock food away without a trace . Those mice will soon give up when they realise she won't be giving them a crumb to eat!

I am in Melbourne and while I don't turn a hair at spiders I do not cope with rodents.
Thank god they are not down here. I do admire the people living amongst them.

@Summersnake

They need to find a bait that makes them infertile ..stops them breeding .. then it should be Easier to control

The problem with that is, the poison needs to be predator friendly too.

You don’t want to kill native wildlife but killing the mice

I heard the other day that Australia has been busily getting rid of feral cats, so there are fewer mouse-eaters around.

I'll take my chance with the crocodiles rather than the mice thanks.