AUSSIES are instructed to tie strings around their pants to prevent scurrying rodents from running up their legs.
The country is ravaged by a mouse plague – the worst outbreak in more than 30 years.
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People protect themselves from the critters by keeping their pant legs closedPhoto credit: Reuters
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Australia suffers from the worst mouse infestation in decadesPhoto credit: NSW Farmers
In the past nine months, millions of the rodents have eaten the farmers’ crops and chewed through houses.
CSIRO mouse expert Steve Henry told VICE News, “People literally tie string around their pants when walking through mice because they don’t want them to run up their pant legs.”
Farmers have decided to burn entire grain silos to avoid the infestation.
Others have brutally set the creatures on fire with a blowtorch or poisoned them with a government-approved poison called zinc phosphide.
Henry, who is in charge of mice control and helping farmers deal with it, says zinc phosphide is the only humane and effective option.
“It’s a nasty chemical and banned in other countries, but the likelihood of secondary poisoning is pretty small,” he said.
An Australian farmer compared the mouse plague with trying to control Covid on a cruise ship.
Mick Harris’ 2,500 acre New South Wales farm is one of thousands to be inundated by mice in the worst scourge in living memory.
People literally tie string around their pants when walking through mice because they don’t want them to run up their pant legs.
Steve Henry, CSIRO mouse expert
The 35-year-old agricultural adviser is concerned that the mice will regroup before the spring planting season.
“It’s like trying to control Covid on a cruise ship,” he said.
“If some cabins are contaminated, it will continue to spread from one to the other.
“It’s the same with paddocks: if you just paddock here and there, they just spread out again.”
As the Australian winter sets in, home and car owners are forced to grapple with rats and mice looking for warmer places to live.
They ate their way through electrical wiring in Narrabri, New South Wales, causing a house fire while damaging cars.
Many have put the legs of their beds and tables in buckets of water to keep mice from crawling up.
Meanwhile, a recent cold snap has made the interiors a prime target.
“At this time of year, the smell of hot mouse urine and feces with the heating systems on is rather offensive,” said a senior official with the New South Wales Farmer’s Association.
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A farmer’s wife was hospitalized just last week after a mouse chewed on her eyeball in its sleep.
Mick and his family were also attacked.
He told how he was rudely awakened one morning by a mouse that screeched across his face.
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A man lifts a sheet to reveal a group of miceCredit: AP
