Mice plague possible after bumper harvest in SA
STOCK up on traps — mouse numbers are rapidly rising across SA, after a bumper grain harvest created a smorgasbord for the pests.
GRAIN farmers are being warned to tackle rapidly growing mice numbers after last year’s bumper harvest created a veritable smorgasbord for the pests.
Another potential mouse plague is looming as numbers rapidly rise across the state, particularly in the northern Adelaide Plains, Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas, with local hardware stores being inundated with requests for bait and traps.
Yorke Peninsula hardware store owner Grant Jarrett said his business has been in the family for about 100 years and judging on experience, mice numbers were shaping up to be of plague proportion this year.
As cooler weather drove mice from paddocks and into the town’s houses and sheds, Mr Jarrett said it was leading to Minlaton locals “buying traps as fast as we can sell them and it’s hard to keep up with the bait”.
“We’re selling plenty, at the moment they are building to plague proportions and they are coming in from all over the place,” he said.
“Unless we get some severely cold weather and heavy rain to affect the mice I think we will be in for a bit of a long haul.”
Most recent monitoring from the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) had CSIRO researcher Steve Henry warn of significant economic damage during sowing of this year’s winter crops.
“Growers should remain vigilant and act accordingly if damage is likely,” Mr Henry said.
Mice could dig out seed as it was sown meaning farmers either had smaller crops or were forced to sow a second time later in the season.
With mice continuing to breed, Mr Henry expected populations to continue rising in the lead up to sowing but said there was “unexplained variability in mouse activity from one paddock to the next” and advised growers to check land holdings carefully.
In Wallaroo on Yorke Peninsula, there were reports of at least 20 people a day buying traps and bait from the local True Value Wallaroo Hardware store as mice began moving into the local town.
Grain Producers SA chief executive Darren Arney said the downside of a record-breaking harvest was the amount of grain and stubble that fed mice, leading to numbers swelling.
But he hoped farmers would be able to stem the tide of mice before they reached plague proportions.
“At this stage it would be higher than last year but there are a number of control methods farmers can use now,” he said.
They could reduce mice habitat with cultivation and by removing stubble along with using baiting and seeders that made it harder for the mice to find grain to eat once it was sown.