Farmers fighting the eastern Australia mouse plague have been granted permission to use bait that is twice as toxic as normal poison – but they say they need government help to pay for it.
Communities are facing a horror mouse plague with the rodents running rampant across large tracts of inland NSW and southern Queensland, destroying crops and causing significant damage to stored hay and grain.
It was hoped heavy rains and cooler temperatures would dampen numbers before winter crops were planted but the changed weather conditions have helped only a few areas.
In most afflicted towns, the mice – which are able to breed from six weeks old and churn out a litter every 21 days – continue to wreak havoc.
But research by Australia’s national science agency has led the pesticides and veterinary authority to issue an emergency permit allowing bait producers to double the toxicity of their products. The in-crop wheat bait will be applied at the same rate but have twice as much deadly zinc phosphide on each grain.
CSIRO researcher Steve Henry says mice rapidly develop an aversion to the bait so it’s critical every grain is a lethal dose.
“One of my colleagues calls it the dodgy curry effect … if you go out, you have some food, you come home and feel sick, you’re not going back to that restaurant again for quite some time,” Henry said.
The higher dose bait will be on the market soon and costs farmers just a dollar more a kilogram.
But, the NSW Farmers association says, the regular product is already in short supply, with demand causing prices to skyrocket.
The organisation has joined forces with the Country Women’s Association to call for a mouse plague financial support package to provide up to $25,000 a farm to help with baiting costs.
A survey of 1,100 farmers across the state found 94% have had to bait mice already and the costs of baiting have exceeded $150,000 for some.
Adding to farmers’ financial woes, a third of those surveyed reported stored grain and fodder losses of between $50,000 and $150,000. Five per cent said they’d lost more than $250,000 worth.
Some growers had to give up on their entire summer crop and about 40% were sowing less this winter. More than 80% of respondents reported damage to machinery and infrastructure, with about a third saying the damage bill was between $20,000 and $150,000.
The health and psychological cost is immense too.
Barmedman farmer Lisa Minogue said she had done 38 loads of washing in three days. “The smell is horrific. You can pick up all the mice you see but there is always more,” she said.
The mice have even made their way into rural hospitals, biting patients, and the local health district has reported an increase in mouse-related disease.
The NSW Farmers survey found 34% of respondents had suffered direct health impacts as a result of the outbreak, and 85% were having trouble sleeping.
“It’s not just farm businesses – regional hotels, retail and food businesses, bakeries, supermarkets, childcare centres and aged care homes have also felt the impact,” the CWA chief executive, Danica Leys, said.
“All of these financial and health impacts follow unprecedented drought, catastrophic bushfires and most recently floods across large regions. It is time for the state government to act.”
But the New South Wales deputy premier and Nationals leader, John Barilaro, said on Tuesday the state government had already helped by lobbying for baiting rule changes. “We have supported our farmers in making sure they can actually bait these mice,” he told parliament.
