An ongoing mouse plague in part of Australia makes life a miserable one for many when people are woken up by rodents biting their feet – or crawling across their faces.
The infestation in a rural New South Wales area, triggered after a grain harvest led to a mass breeding season, has caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage and warnings that severely affected residents are about to “collapse”.
The Pest invasion comes on the back of one of the worst droughts ever recorded and bushfires.
The residents of the small town of Tottenham are exhausted when they face the crush.
They have swept away thousands of dead mice every morning since February before setting up fresh bait and traps to kill more.
The rush started improving a few weeks ago with colder and wetter conditions.
But drier weather has made the plague increase again.
Tons of grain cannot be sold as it is contaminated by mouse droppings and truckloads of hay are burned for the damage.
The local school was also flooded.
Director John Southon said “Children don’t blink” when mice regularly scurry across their desks.
He told the students to bring their lunch in sealed containers.
Mr. Southon said, “You are in every aspect of our lives, our homes, our cars, the laundry basket.
“At some point people will have a breakdown because it is constant and it wears you down.”
