PLAGUE OF MICE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1922, Page 1

PLAGUE OF MICE

SENTRIES OYER SLEEPERS. SYDNEY, April 10.

Tlio mice plague in the west is becoming more and more a source of annoyance, and tl,e depredations of tile post continue (writes the Dublin correspondent of the Sydney "Sun”). The evil is much greater in the rural districts than in the towns, though in some of the towns there are millions of the rodents. At Bunglegumbie, Uawsonviile, and other parts of the Dublin district tile mice are in countless millions, and, having eaten all that is succulent in the farm and grazing! amis, they have invaded the farmers’ homes.

At night time they attack the sleepers, and several children have been bitten about the face and body in their sleep.

Now it is found necessary for one of many families to remain awake all night, taking if in turns to act as sentry over the sleepers and drive away the mice, which come out from their hiding places in the quiet .hours.

As an instance of the destruction caused, .Mr .Michael Bolger, of \\ 011bobbie Station, a well-known gra.zicr, stated that the mice have eaten out his vegetable garden and destroyed all the fruit in his orchard. They have also destroyed all grass that has any nutriment in it. The hay stacks in the west are fouled by the pest, and the fodder rendered of no value at all, as all the seed has been eaten and the excrement of the mice permeated the whole of the hay. The stench of the pest also makes some homes almost uninhabitable. Thousands of mice are caught by traps in every section of the West every night. There are many ingenious devices to lure the pest to their death. One of the most successful is to place a tub of water close to a table from which projects over the neck of a. bottle, which is directly over the water. The neck of the bottle is greased and the other portion covered with cloth. The mice are attracted by the smell of the grease, and climb on to the table and thence on to the cloth on the bottle, and thence again on to the greasy neck, from whir they slip off into the water. Tn scores of homes hundreds are thus caught each night, but no appreciable reduction in the proportions of the plague are noticeable. Cats are quite unconcerned at the presence of the pest, and are now of little use.