Australian farmers battle mouse plague affecting crops, homes

International

FARMERS across large parts of Australia are facing a worsening mouse plague, with rodents invading homes and destroying vast areas of grain crops.

The infestation comes as agricultural communities are also dealing with added pressure from unstable fuel and fertilizer supplies, further straining farm operations.

Farmers have been forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars replanting destroyed crops and laying bait, sterile seeds treated with poison, to control the rapidly spreading rodents.

“It’s a big cost and it’s not just the price of the bait,” Geoff Cosgrove said in a report by BBC.

Cosgrove manages a 14,000-hectare farm in Mingenew, Western Australia, where wheat, canola, lupin, and barley are grown. He described the infestation as overwhelming, saying mice enter homes and farm facilities at night, causing disturbance and a strong foul odor.

“They do play with your mind—running around at night, in the ceiling, the air conditioning units. You can hear them and you can smell them, it’s like a decaying body,” he said.

Cosgrove, who has been farming for 25 years, said he has only used bait twice before, adding that the current outbreak is worse than the 2021 mouse plague.

That earlier infestation affected large parts of New South Wales and Queensland, causing severe damage and major disruptions, including prisoner relocations due to rodent damage in facilities.

This year, farmers in Western Australia first reported plague-level mouse activity in March, with South Australia later experiencing similar cases.(Shanice Kaye Ocio, CNU Comm Intern)