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Emergency permit allows farmers battling Australian mouse plague to use double-strength bait

Farmers in New South Wales welcome move but ask the state government to help pay for eradication efforts


Farmers fighting the eastern Australia mouse plague have been granted permission to use bait that is twice as toxic as normal poison – but they say they need government help to pay for it.

Communities are facing a horror mouse plague with the rodents running rampant across large tracts of inland NSW and southern Queensland, destroying crops and causing significant damage to stored hay and grain.

It was hoped heavy rains and cooler temperatures would dampen numbers before winter crops were planted but the changed weather conditions have helped only a few areas.

In most afflicted towns, the mice – which are able to breed from six weeks old and churn out a litter every 21 days – continue to wreak havoc.

But research by Australia’s national science agency has led the pesticides and veterinary authority to issue an emergency permit allowing bait producers to double the toxicity of their products. The in-crop wheat bait will be applied at the same rate but have twice as much deadly zinc phosphide on each grain.
'You can't escape the smell': mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia
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CSIRO researcher Steve Henry says mice rapidly develop an aversion to the bait so it’s critical every grain is a lethal dose.

“One of my colleagues calls it the dodgy curry effect … if you go out, you have some food, you come home and feel sick, you’re not going back to that restaurant again for quite some time,” Henry said.

The higher dose bait will be on the market soon and costs farmers just a dollar more a kilogram.

But, the NSW Farmers association says the regular product is already in short supply, with demand causing prices to skyrocket.

The organisation has joined forces with the Country Women’s Association to call for a mouse plague financial support package to provide up to $25,000 a farm to help with baiting costs.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, acknowledged the rodents were “unpleasant” but said there was only so much government could do.

“A number of my colleagues live in communities where they have told me their personal experiences [of the plague]. It’s unpleasant, depending on where you live, and apparently it could get worse, due to the reproductive times. I am less knowledgeable on this than my regional colleagues,” Berejiklian told 2GB radio.

“We are doing everything we can but there is only so much we can do, it’s nature at the end. One of my colleagues joked there’s a lot of fat snakes out there at the moment. We can’t pretend to be able to fix what is a natural disaster.”

The premier said it was not all bad news for regional areas. “But for the plague, things are turning around for the regions, tourism is going through the roof,” she said.

A survey of 1,100 farmers across the state found 94% have had to bait mice already and the costs of baiting have exceeded $150,000 for some.

The NSW Farmers survey found 34% of respondents had suffered direct health impacts as a result of the outbreak, and 85% were having trouble sleeping.

“It’s not just farm businesses – regional hotels, retail and food businesses, bakeries, supermarkets, childcare centres and aged care homes have also felt the impact,” the CWA chief executive, Danica Leys, said.

“All of these financial and health impacts follow unprecedented drought, catastrophic bushfires and most recently floods across large regions. It is time for the state government to act.”

But the New South Wales deputy premier and Nationals leader, John Barilaro, said on Tuesday the state government had already helped by lobbying for baiting rule changes. “We have supported our farmers in making sure they can actually bait these mice,” he told parliament.

/* src.: https://www.theguardian.com/australi...-strength-bait

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Shelter releases 1,000 feral cats on to Chicago streets to combat rat crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ats-rat-crisis

Through a program called Cats at Work, the Tree House Humane Society, a local animal shelter, releases feral felines on to city streets. The initiative places two to three cats, all spayed, neutered and vaccinated, outside of residences and businesses to sustainably deal with Chicago’s rodent problem.

The cats are animals that “would not thrive in a shelter or home environment” and are usually subject to long stays in animal control centers or euthanization, according to the non-profit’s website.

While the deployed felines will sometimes kill rats, the mere presence of these repurposed alley cats is usually enough to scare off pests.

About 1,000 cats have now been released since 2012, as reported by WGN9, a local media station.

Local homeowners or businesses can sign up for the program, as long as they cover food, water and shelter for the cats. The popular program currently has a “long waitlist”, as stated on its website.

Issues with vermin aren’t new for Chicago. For the sixth consecutive year Chicago has beaten out major cities like Los Angeles and New York to be named the “rattiest city” in a poll conducted by Orkin, an American pest control company.

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Đuổi ba chú chuột đi ra khỏi nhà
(Cat dao)

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all spayed

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