GREAT PLAGUE OF MICE

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 85, 10 April 1917, Page 6

GREAT PLAGUE OF MICE

(FXOK OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 4th April.

Mice are now being slain in hundreds of thousands as the result, of vigorous operations in the Victorian and New South Wales wheat districts. As the result of favourable seasons—so say the scientists at any rate —mice have increased in numbers to an extent almost incredible. They have swarmed over the farm lands and into houses and townships,', and their, attacks on the wheat stacks nave caused { enormous damage. All sorte of highly-coloured stories of the plague have been coming in from the affected districts. It is an absolute fact that it,is practically impossible to buy a mouse-trap in Sydney—all available supplies have been secured by pedlers, who are gathering a rich harvest in the Country^ of the Mice. Of course, in the affected country, there has been concerted action against the creatures. The Lascelles Station, so far, has reported- the biggest catch at a single wheat-stack-in one night, the 6otal being 30,000. At Marnoo .Station, the figures for the first three nights were 8000, 10,000, and 12,000. After that, the figures stopped rising, and settled down to an average of about 10,000 a night. Banyena and other stations on th« Lubeck-Marnoo line report similar catches. The system adopted is that of fencing in the stadks with corrugated iron and then, at frequent intervals in the fence, placing large traps, designed toaccommodate mice either going_ in or coming out. Various kinds of fumigation are used to create a desire on the part of the mice to come out. At Wahrings the owner, wishing to kill the mice outright, used bisulphide of carbon, buf although the animals left the' qtack in great haste, the majority of them were merely stupified and did not die—not, that is to say, as the result of the gas. In many districts as the simplest solution, of the problem, the farmers are rapidly sending their wheat away. ■ The Argus says that the more adventurous mice are coming down to the seaboard. Sometimes when railway trucks of wheat arrive at Geelong the mice jump out in dozens. Up in the the mice are now invading the houses, arid doing much damage. At Donald, a trvefiing Representative of the Wheat Commission found one morning that a mouse had made a nest under his pillow, and it is said that mice also eat holes in the bedclothes.