Plague in Australia: People demand to use banned poison

Australia is moving ahead to use banned high-grade poison to fight millions of mice, as farmers struggle to protect their crops from the worst rodent invasion in decades.

Friday, 14th May 2021

New South Wales, Australia: Australia is moving ahead to use banned high-grade poison to fight millions of mice, as farmers struggle to protect their crops from the worst rodent invasion in decades. On social media, the stomach-churning footage showed matte mice scurrying around barn floors, crowding around machinery, and entering thick steel silos. It has even been reported that farmers' feet were bitten while sleeping. A viral video showed a giant vacuum cleaner sucking the mice out of storage containers, but methods of treating the intrusion have so far provided little respite for farmers. The crisis has prompted the government of New South Wales to release Australian $50 million (USD$39 million) to tackle what it calls an economic and public health crisis. The state is asking the federal government for approval to use Bromadiolone, a powerful pesticide that is normally banned in the country. "This is actually the strongest mouse poison we can get anywhere on earth that will actually kill these things within 24 hours," said Adam Marshall, the agriculture minister. Mouse numbers across the state exploded after a major harvest last season, following abundant rains that broke a years-long drought. Although good news for farmers who have endured years of disappointing crop yields, the sharp increase in grain volumes have provided the pests with more food. Mouse Poo The contamination, which is spreading rapidly across the state of New South Wales and Queensland, is causing huge crop yields and contaminated sorghum exports with animal manure, causing quality downgrades and leading to cancelled grain deliveries. "From an export perspective, there is no or no tolerance for mouse poo," said Nick Carracher, CEO of Lachstock Consulting, an agricultural services and advisory provider in Victoria. "It's very difficult to clean - virtually impossible." Apart from pollution issues, there will probably be further outages if farmers enter the next planting season for winter crops such as wheat and barley. Although it is predicted that Australia will still have a fairly favourable harvest this season, the plague could divert the forecasts. Mice, which are partial to newly sown seeds, are likely to indulge in the coming harvest before reaching the germination stage. "Freshly sown crops have lower germination because there are bloody mice everywhere!" Carracher said. 'It's definitely a real threat in those areas.