PLAGUE OF MICE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1707, 3 May 1917, Page 1

PLAGUE OF MICE.

SERIOUS VICTORIAN BEST

MILLION S SLA UGHTEI {l'] 1)

Miff sire now being' slain in millions in Victoria, as the result of the campaign for the protection of wheat; stacks. The biggest catch for one night at, a single stack so far has been MO,OOO mice at the Lascelles station. At the Mornoo station the figures for the first three nights were 8.000, 30,000, 12,000. It looked as if the numbers caught were going to rise indefinitely, but after the I bird day the haul settled down to about 10,000 a night. Banyena and other stations on the Lnbeck-Mai'iioo line show results similar to those at Marina).

So far the system adopted of fencing in the stacks, with traps at intervals, has worked well, judging by the number of mice caught, but it seems to make little difference in their numbers. At Wahring, bisulphide of carbon proved effective in : driving the mice out of the stack, but most of (hem were only dazed, and recovered afterwards, though some died. In the Goulburn Valley | and the North-East, the wheat is being rapidly moved away. In the AVestorn district, to the south of the Adelaide line, the mice trouble is not serious, and the same is true of the district north of Bendigo ns far as Kerang and Column. In the districts most affected, such ns the Wimmera and parts of the Malice, the whole country is over-rnn with mice. The more adventurous mice arc coming down to the seaboard. Some times when railway trucks fall of wheat arrive at Geelong (he mice jump out in dozens. Up in the Malice the mice are now invading the houses, and doing much damage. At Donald a travelling representative of the Wheat Commission found in the morning that a mouse had made a nest under , his pillow, and il L said that (he | mice also cal holes in the bedclothes.