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Out of all the countries in the world, Australia has got to be the biggest exporter of the stuff of nightmares.
Not only do they constantly struggle with extreme weather conditions, from droughts to fires and floods, but the country down under also sees, far too often, hordes of creatures that keep people up at night.
There were the spiders and snakes that coalesced in New South Wales after the flooding, and now, the same area is seeing a plague of mice.
Farmers in this rural part of Australia are currently having their crops destroyed and homes invaded by waves of mice that have bred exponentially after a summer of heavy rain produced high crop yields and cooler weather – ripe conditions for the pests.
The fact that they are “rapid breeders” is like fuel to the fire, where one mouse can give birth to a litter of six or 10 pups in a week.
One mouse is fine – cute, even – but millions? Not a chance.
The BBC released a video of the ordeal, speaking to three farmers about living through the worst mouse plague in Australia’s memory:
If the video above is taken down, here it is again via Twitter:
"The ground just moves with mice"
After drought, fires and floods, rural farms in Australia are now battling a devastating mouse plaguehttps://t.co/NuRztAZj15 pic.twitter.com/q855M3tHo5
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 25, 2021
Mousetraps and bait stations do very little to control the masses of mice, so the farmers can only wait for nature (colder weather, and a rise in predator populations) to properly fight back.
The NZ Herald reports that the areas that have been the worst hit are the Northern Tablelands, Central West, and New England regions of NSW:
Frighteningly, there are those that speculate that the plague could even reach Sydney in the coming months.
