GREAT PLAGUE OF MICE.

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 86, 13 April 1917, Page 3

GREAT PLAGUE OF MICE.

ENORMOUS DAMAGE TO WHEATSTACKS. '

I' .- ' " SYDNEY, April 4, }. Mice , arc now being' slain in I hundreds of thousands as the result } ol vigorous operations in the Vie- ; torian arid '"New South Wales wheat j I districts. As the result of favorable ' seasons—so say i;he scientists at any j rate—mice have increased in numbers Ito an extent almost incredible. They ', halve swarmed over the farm lands j and into houses and townships, and j their attacks on the wheat stacks | have caused enormous damage! All sorts of highly colored stories. of the j plague have been coming in from the - affected districts. It ts an absolute fact that it is practically impossible to buy a mouse-trap in Sydney—all available supplies have been secured ! by pedlars, who are gathering a rich harvest in the Country of the Mice. Of course, in the affected country there has been concerted action against the creatures. The Lascelles Station, so far, has reported the biggest catch at a single wheat-stack in one night, the total being 30,000. At Marnoo Station, the figures for ! the first three nights were 8000, } 10,000, and 12,000. After that, the \ figures stopped rising, and settled '■ down to an average of about 10,000 I a night. Banyena and otlier stations ion the Irtibec'k-Marnoo line report ', similar catches. !- The system adopted is that of , fencing in the stacks with corrugated '■ iron and then, at frequent intervals iin the fences, placing large traps, J designed to accommodate mice either ' going .in or coming out. Various kinds of fumigation are used to create a desire on the part of the mice to come put. A.t Wahringa the .owner, wishing to kill the mice outright, used bisulphide of carbon, but although the animals left the . stack in great haste, the majority of them were merely «tupified and did not die^ —not, that is to say, as the result of the gas. In many districts as the simplest solution of the problem, the farmeis are rapidly sending their wheat away. ■ The Argus says that the more .idventurous mice are coming down to .. the seaboard.- Sometimes \vhen i*ail>way trucks of Ayheat !arrivc at' Gee,long the mice jump out in dozens. Up in the ]\fallee ti^e mice are now invading the houses, and doing much damage. At Donald, a travelling : representative of the Wlieat Commission found one morning that a ..mousehad _made a nest. under his " pillow, rind it is said that mice also eat holes in the bedclothes. r