Kapunda mouse, rat plague leaves residents pleading for help

Families are on the frontline of the fight against surging rodent numbers, says one woman appealing for help on Facebook with video of her clogged-up mouse traps.

Surging rodent numbers have fed-up property owners pleading for local authorities to step in, with one Kapunda resident posting video of her overwhelmed traps in an appeal for help.

Other residents say they’ve had to move animals into the house to protect them.

Krystal Mullins said she found 38 dead mice in traps on her property on Thursday morning.

“They seem to come in cycles … a few weeks ago we were getting at least 30 or 40 a day,” Ms Mullins told The Advertiser.

“It’s terrible, as soon as we set the trap … you get one every 10 minutes,” she said.

Ms Mullins posted video of one of her traps to a local Facebook group, along with a call for others to report their numbers to Light Regional Council.

Krystal Mullins with her son, Carlos, 11 and Rocky, 9. Picture: Supplied

Kapunda residents are reporting a rat and mice plague. Picture: Krystal Mullins/Facebook

Ms Mullins said she had bought countless baits costing up to $20 a packet and said the council should help property owners bear the cost.

“The council should definitely be doing something, we’re paying so much in council rates, and for what?” she said.

“If they’re not going to help we’re just going to be going through this forever.”

Nearly 50 people in Kapunda and surrounds replied to Ms Mullin’s Facebook post, with one woman saying she had lost count of how many mice she had trapped.

“I caught 14 in traps last night and have the bucket of water with poison out the front of our house that gets heaps,” she said.

Krystal Mullins keeps a daily tally of the dead rodents she finds on her property. Picture: Krystal Mullins/Facebook

Kapunda residents are reporting a rat and mice plague. Picture: Krystal Mullins

Another woman said she had bait stations through her home which were working.

“Problem is they die around the house and we have to try and find them,” she said.

Kylie Elliot lives in Owen, about 40km west of Kapunda, and said she too is seeing high numbers of rats and mice at her property.

Ms Elliot, 47, said the problem had forced her bring her baby chickens inside the house to spare them from a grisly end.

“Because they chew the chickens’ tails off and eat the babies,” Ms Elliot said.

She is finding at least two rats or mice every day and has down for at least two months.

But Ms Elliott did not believe much could be done.

“It’s bad luck, suck it up and get over it because it’s part of country life,” she said.

Light Regional Council Mayor Bill O’Brien sympathised with residents but said subsidised traps and baits would be too hard to manage logistically.

“If we’ve got mice in our home, we have to eradicate them at our own expense... it’s our own responsibility,” Mr O’Brien said.

“We will certainly be looking at places where mice and rats are breeding where it’s our (council’s) responsibility to eradicate them.”

Grain Producers SA chair Adrian McCabe said seeding has begun for early sowers in some parts of the state for canola but he has not heard of escalated rodent numbers.

“I haven’t heard of escalating plagues or anything like that, but there are some around which you can see at night time which we generally see at the start of seeding and with machinery moving up and back were starting to see a few holes disturbed,” he said.

“High numbers generally relate to mild autumns with a good amount of feed on the ground, so after a big harvest and some rain around for them to breed up on and drink.

“We continue to monitor them for any build ups absolutely.... Obviously at this time of the year we’re always concerned and always looking at mice.”