GREAT PLAGUE OF MICE.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 April 1917, Page 3

GREAT PLAGUE OF MICE.

Sydney, April 4. 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 au extent almost incredible. They : have swarmed over the farm lands and into houses and townships, and 1 their attacks on the wheat stacks have caused enormous damage. All : sorts of highly-coloured stories of the • plague have been coming in from the 1 affected districts. It is an absolute I fact that it is practically impossible to buy a mouse-trap in Sydney-*-all available supplies have been secured by pedlers, who arc 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 total being 30,000. At Marne 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 the Lubeck-Marnoo line report similar catches.

The system adopted is that of fencing in the stacks with corrugated iron and then, at frequent intervals in the fence, placing large traps, designed to accommodate 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 but. At Walirings the owner, wishing to kill the mice outright, used bisulphide of carbon, but although the animals left the stack in great haste, the majority of them were merely stupefied, and did not die—not, that is to say, as a 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 Mallee the mice are now invading the houses, and doing much damage. At Donald, a travelling representative of the Wheat Commission found one morning that a mouse had made a nfest under his pillow, and it is said that mice also eat holes in the bedclothes.