As most people would be hearing, there is a mouse plague in progress in rural parts of Australia and it’s ruining the crops after the years of droughts affecting those very same regions.

The psychological damage is there as well.

Should the way they manage the plague be re-thought about?

Should mass ultrasonic beacons be used to heard mice into water trap vats and start mass defense approaches?

With global trading and different levels since covid , we need to be more self sufficient than ever before really and looking after food sources and the primary producing sector is very important everyday but certainly currently.

Any suggestions?

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/21/mouse-plague-map-are-the-mice-terrorising-regional-nsw-about-to-invade-sydney

Over the past six months, millions and millions of mice have terrorised the people of regional New South Wales.

They have found them in their homes, ceilings, fields, bins, in children’s classrooms as they sit Naplan exams, in the stuffing of armchairs, and even biting them in hospital beds.

The mouse plague has so far cost millions of dollars in damaged property and crops, prompting the NSW government to create a $50m rescue package and fast-track the approval of the world’s deadliest mouse poison.

On Thursday night, an alarmingly arresting map, prepared by Channel 10 News Sydney, implied that the mice would soon “march” on Sydney.

The map appeared to show the mice forming four military columns and organising in a highly sophisticated pincer movement.

According to the Channel 10 report, the mice could “invade Sydney by August”. It quoted Dieter Mafra, a “mouse technician” from Kevin Joyce Pest Management, who said the mice could enter cities “as they hitch rides on trucks and food pallets”.

What does the data show?
The most recent mouse monitoring report from the CSIRO and Grains Research and Development Corporation measures mouse activity based on monitoring sites around Australia. This report in March showed “moderate to high mouse activity in many regions of southern Queensland; northern, central and southern NSW; north-western Victoria; and parts of South Australia”.

The associated MouseAlert website and app, run by the NSW government and the CSIRO, provides a platform for grain producers and farmers to report mouse sightings with the aim of making it easier to monitor mouse activity in almost real time.

etc

monkey skipper said:

Any suggestions?

Buggered if I know, TBH.

It seems like something outside of the scale that any individual farmer, even any local community could combat on their own resources.

I know of nothing except poisoning the bastards, but that would probably mean the death of lots of other critters too.

Are there any particular smells they are attracted to? Maybe you could set up a blender in a field and spray lots of that scent leading up to the inlet chute…. bit gruesome but the best I can come up with. Maybe only need to attract all the males or all the females.

party_pants said:

monkey skipper said:

Any suggestions?

Buggered if I know, TBH.

It seems like something outside of the scale that any individual farmer, even any local community could combat on their own resources.

I know of nothing except poisoning the bastards, but that would probably mean the death of lots of other critters too.

Are there any particular smells they are attracted to? Maybe you could set up a blender in a field and spray lots of that scent leading up to the inlet chute…. bit gruesome but the best I can come up with. Maybe only need to attract all the males or all the females.

It seems getting z moat and a draw bridge strategy but in areas were wasting water is not ideal but then if the critters get into the water supply , there is the health risk associated with that.

Sounds gruesome but could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Killing the mice is all well and good but, ideally, the longer-term solution should be to render them sterile or infertile, so they don’t reproduce. Otherwise, all you’re doing is chasing your tail.

monkey skipper said:

party_pants said:

monkey skipper said:

Any suggestions?

Buggered if I know, TBH.

It seems like something outside of the scale that any individual farmer, even any local community could combat on their own resources.

I know of nothing except poisoning the bastards, but that would probably mean the death of lots of other critters too.

Are there any particular smells they are attracted to? Maybe you could set up a blender in a field and spray lots of that scent leading up to the inlet chute…. bit gruesome but the best I can come up with. Maybe only need to attract all the males or all the females.

It seems getting z moat and a draw bridge strategy but in areas were wasting water is not ideal but then if the critters get into the water supply , there is the health risk associated with that.

Sounds gruesome but could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Are these mice all introduced pests or are some native species?

> could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Looking at images from the TV, that occurred to me, too. Yummie mouse pite. Even less tenable is farm cats.
Qld used to have a government bounty on dead mice, I didn’t like it because it could too easily turn into a hunting of endemic species.

As I understand it, it’s not so much the silos, hay bales and bags that are the problem, it’s the seed grain being planted for next years harvest. Can you coat seed grain with mouse poison? That would be my first suggestion.

mollwollfumble said:

monkey skipper said:

party_pants said:

Buggered if I know, TBH.

It seems like something outside of the scale that any individual farmer, even any local community could combat on their own resources.

I know of nothing except poisoning the bastards, but that would probably mean the death of lots of other critters too.

Are there any particular smells they are attracted to? Maybe you could set up a blender in a field and spray lots of that scent leading up to the inlet chute…. bit gruesome but the best I can come up with. Maybe only need to attract all the males or all the females.

It seems getting z moat and a draw bridge strategy but in areas were wasting water is not ideal but then if the critters get into the water supply , there is the health risk associated with that.

Sounds gruesome but could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Are these mice all introduced pests or are some native species?

> could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Looking at images from the TV, that occurred to me, too. Yummie mouse pite. Even less tenable is farm cats.
Qld used to have a government bounty on dead mice, I didn’t like it because it could too easily turn into a hunting of endemic species.

As I understand it, it’s not so much the silos, hay bales and bags that are the problem, it’s the seed grain being planted for next years harvest. Can you coat seed grain with mouse poison? That would be my first suggestion.

They are all the introduced mice, native species are usually confined to zones of bush and not open grain growing paddocks.

mollwollfumble said:

monkey skipper said:

party_pants said:

Buggered if I know, TBH.

It seems like something outside of the scale that any individual farmer, even any local community could combat on their own resources.

I know of nothing except poisoning the bastards, but that would probably mean the death of lots of other critters too.

Are there any particular smells they are attracted to? Maybe you could set up a blender in a field and spray lots of that scent leading up to the inlet chute…. bit gruesome but the best I can come up with. Maybe only need to attract all the males or all the females.

It seems getting z moat and a draw bridge strategy but in areas were wasting water is not ideal but then if the critters get into the water supply , there is the health risk associated with that.

Sounds gruesome but could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Are these mice all introduced pests or are some native species?

> could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Looking at images from the TV, that occurred to me, too. Yummie mouse pite. Even less tenable is farm cats.
Qld used to have a government bounty on dead mice, I didn’t like it because it could too easily turn into a hunting of endemic species.

As I understand it, it’s not so much the silos, hay bales and bags that are the problem, it’s the seed grain being planted for next years harvest. Can you coat seed grain with mouse poison? That would be my first suggestion.

Freeze them at the point of capture so no disease creeps in and it might be ok, dunno.

Tau.Neutrino said:

mollwollfumble said:

monkey skipper said:

It seems getting z moat and a draw bridge strategy but in areas were wasting water is not ideal but then if the critters get into the water supply , there is the health risk associated with that.

Sounds gruesome but could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Are these mice all introduced pests or are some native species?

> could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Looking at images from the TV, that occurred to me, too. Yummie mouse pite. Even less tenable is farm cats.
Qld used to have a government bounty on dead mice, I didn’t like it because it could too easily turn into a hunting of endemic species.

As I understand it, it’s not so much the silos, hay bales and bags that are the problem, it’s the seed grain being planted for next years harvest. Can you coat seed grain with mouse poison? That would be my first suggestion.

Freeze them at the point of capture so no disease creeps in and it might be ok, dunno.

blood and bone.

monkey skipper said:

Sounds gruesome but could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

How about high temperature solar thermal baking, to turn them into cabon pellets which can then be added to the soil as fertiliser.

sarahs mum said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

mollwollfumble said:

Are these mice all introduced pests or are some native species?

> could they turn dead mice into protein pellets for animal feed?

Looking at images from the TV, that occurred to me, too. Yummie mouse pite. Even less tenable is farm cats.
Qld used to have a government bounty on dead mice, I didn’t like it because it could too easily turn into a hunting of endemic species.

As I understand it, it’s not so much the silos, hay bales and bags that are the problem, it’s the seed grain being planted for next years harvest. Can you coat seed grain with mouse poison? That would be my first suggestion.

Freeze them at the point of capture so no disease creeps in and it might be ok, dunno.

blood and bone.

It would be a good way to return them to the soil.

Tau.Neutrino said:

sarahs mum said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Freeze them at the point of capture so no disease creeps in and it might be ok, dunno.

blood and bone.

It would be a good way to return them to the soil.

A mouse harvester mini factory to pellets or something else

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

sarahs mum said:

blood and bone.

It would be a good way to return them to the soil.

A mouse harvester mini factory to pellets or something else

Map the worst spots

predict their direction and flow

bring in the machines

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

It would be a good way to return them to the soil.

A mouse harvester mini factory to pellets or something else

Map the worst spots

predict their direction and flow

bring in the machines

use pest control drones in the air

a bit of infrastructure

Things on the internet

work upwards

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

A mouse harvester mini factory to pellets or something else

Map the worst spots

predict their direction and flow

bring in the machines

use pest control drones in the air

a bit of infrastructure

Things on the internet

work upwards

flamethrowers.
Napalm.
Tasers.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

A mouse harvester mini factory to pellets or something else

Map the worst spots

predict their direction and flow

bring in the machines

use pest control drones in the air

a bit of infrastructure

Things on the internet

work upwards

map the existing mouse plague movement

have mouse sensors in place in the future where they started from

sarahs mum said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Map the worst spots

predict their direction and flow

bring in the machines

use pest control drones in the air

a bit of infrastructure

Things on the internet

work upwards

flamethrowers.
Napalm.
Tasers.

Exactly, all those things.

Tau.Neutrino said:

sarahs mum said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

use pest control drones in the air

a bit of infrastructure

Things on the internet

work upwards

flamethrowers.
Napalm.
Tasers.

Exactly, all those things.

and early detection

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

It would be a good way to return them to the soil.

A mouse harvester mini factory to pellets or something else

Map the worst spots

predict their direction and flow

bring in the machines

I think it depends on what you want to do? If you want to save the crop the mice are too numerous and widespread and if you want to make a business of converting plague mice into something useful, would it be economical to invest large sums into specialise machinery for something that is ephemeral and would not return unless environmental conditions are ideal.

PermeateFree said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

A mouse harvester mini factory to pellets or something else

Map the worst spots

predict their direction and flow

bring in the machines

I think it depends on what you want to do? If you want to save the crop the mice are too numerous and widespread and if you want to make a business of converting plague mice into something useful, would it be economical to invest large sums into specialise machinery for something that is ephemeral and would not return unless environmental conditions are ideal.

Yes.

Economics comes into it

viability to save crops

unviable to save crops

some areas will be worse than others

Tau.Neutrino said:

PermeateFree said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Map the worst spots

predict their direction and flow

bring in the machines

I think it depends on what you want to do? If you want to save the crop the mice are too numerous and widespread and if you want to make a business of converting plague mice into something useful, would it be economical to invest large sums into specialise machinery for something that is ephemeral and would not return unless environmental conditions are ideal.

Yes.

Economics comes into it

viability to save crops

unviable to save crops

some areas will be worse than others

Statistics comes into it over a whole state.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

PermeateFree said:

I think it depends on what you want to do? If you want to save the crop the mice are too numerous and widespread and if you want to make a business of converting plague mice into something useful, would it be economical to invest large sums into specialise machinery for something that is ephemeral and would not return unless environmental conditions are ideal.

Yes.

Economics comes into it

viability to save crops

unviable to save crops

some areas will be worse than others

Statistics comes into it over a whole state.

Then fine tune things more based on data.

I’m not a pest control expert

but you can design a few different systems to see which designs are more efficient

then scale the best one up

mice are people too

Tau.Neutrino said:

I’m not a pest control expert

but you can design a few different systems to see which designs are more efficient

then scale the best one up

The best one to date is to bait them, which can be spread over a wide area at a reasonable price and the dead mice will fertilise the soil as they rot. The big disadvantage is the wildlife that eat the baited mice are likely to die too..

Any new news on where it’s worst?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_plagues_in_Australia

https://www.9news.com.au/national/mouse-plague-map-shows-where-mice-are-moving-new-south-wales-and-queensland/c9be116f-9a8d-4f28-a772-d2bf6fa9b62e

There is a map on mouse movement here

https://www.feralscan.org.au/mousealert/map.aspx

https://www.feralscan.org.au/mousealert/map.aspx

Map reveals horrifying extent of nightmare mouse plague
https://au.news.yahoo.com/map-reveals-horrifying-extent-of-nightmare-mouse-plague-124402178.html

Australian Town Hit By Worst Mice Plague ‘in Decades’; Rodents Bite People, Invade Homes
https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/australia/australian-town-hit-by-worst-mice-plague-in-decades-rodents-bite-people-invade-homes.html

some interesting replies. the farmers would love have a financial benefit from this catastrophe, converting them into a food source or garden resource seems smart and an income generator and having an alternative income stream to do something to offset the losses has to be worth a consideration.

Maybe they could adapt this to locust plagues that occur from time to time around the globe as well.

monkey skipper said:

As most people would be hearing, there is a mouse plague in progress in rural parts of Australia and it’s ruining the crops after the years of droughts affecting those very same regions.

The psychological damage is there as well.

Should the way they manage the plague be re-thought about?

Should mass ultrasonic beacons be used to heard mice into water trap vats and start mass defense approaches?

With global trading and different levels since covid , we need to be more self sufficient than ever before really and looking after food sources and the primary producing sector is very important everyday but certainly currently.

Any suggestions?

It has been the same ever since they brought mice here and cleared toth ;and to grow them grains.
Change is required. Out with the old ways and in with even older ways.

https://www.feralscan.org.au/default.aspx

they have an active map and downloadable apps

Apps
https://www.feralscan.org.au/mousealert/default.aspx

Map
https://www.feralscan.org.au/mousealert/map.aspx

Tau.Neutrino said:

https://www.feralscan.org.au/default.aspx

they have an active map and downloadable apps

Apps
https://www.feralscan.org.au/mousealert/default.aspx

Map
https://www.feralscan.org.au/mousealert/map.aspx

Ta.

Pest companies could look at scaling across all 14 best known pests for viability.

Return all pests back to soil for maximum environment protection.