Mouse plague hits Macarthur as pest control flooded with calls

South west Sydney residents are catching hundreds of mice in their homes and are forced to get rid of nests as the mouse plague moves from the state’s Central West to metropolitan areas.

The mouse plague terrorising farmers in the state’s Central West has made it’s way to Sydney’s south west, as residents report an onslaught of mice in their homes and pest control businesses are hit with an influx of calls.

Since the news of the horror mouse plague in country NSW, mouse traps and pest control products have flown off the shelves across the Macarthur region, with some residents catching up to 27 pests in one night.

Campbelltown resident Steve Bull told the Macarthur Chronicle he caught 27 mice in just one night after he found they had infested his house.

“We’ve been having troubles for at least four weeks but the worst night was when I caught 27 with four traps,” Mr Bull said.

Tayla Azzi from Ever Team Home Services has been completing more pest control jobs as Macarthur locals fear they will have more mice. Picture: Tayla Azzi

“They were in the stove, oven, kitchen cupboards, you name it.”

Desperate to free his house of the vermin, Mr Bull tried using generic mouse traps but nothing seemed to be working.

“It’s a bit hard to put baits everywhere with young kids and pets so we got some heavy duty traps and it seemed to get them,” he said.

Adelle Charlie lives on a farm at Camden Park and said mice have been destroying her home, eating through her airconditioning to get inside the house.

Since getting inside, the vermin have eaten the bottom of her lounge and gnawed through most of the cords on her television.

“I even had them in the interior roof of my car … I had to remove three separate nests with babies from inside my house,” Ms Charlie said.

Ms Charlie said she has been struggling with a mice problem since January and has had to put down baits fortnightly.

Adelle Charlie lives on a farm at Camden Park and said mice have been destroying her home, eating through her couch. Picture: Adelle Charlie

The vermin had even made nests inside her laundry. Picture: Adelle Charlie

Although she lives on a farm, Ms Charlie said this is the first time she’s had a problem since moving to Camden Park six years ago.

“We never had a mice problem until we got the floods this year,” she said.

The problem is getting so bad that stores across Macarthur are completely out of pest control products, with most Bunnings Warehouses full of empty shelves.

Raquel Eyley Wood said she had noticed more mice in her home lately but found it difficult to purchase baits and traps, comparing it to the toilet paper saga at the beginning of Covid last year.

“It was impossible for me to get any at Woolies and Coles so I started doing a ring around and eventually rang Bunnings who saved me a packet of ratsack,” Ms Wood said.

Luckily, Bunnings had just recently had a delivery of products so Ms Wood was able to stock up.

“Since then, I’ve kept my eye on Coles and Woolies and still haven’t seen them,” she said.

The problem is getting so bad that stores across Macarthur are completely out of pest control products. Picture: Facebook.

“My friend works at Woolies and she assures me products get put out but they go straight away … just like toilet paper last year.”

Tayla and Josh Azzi own pest control business Ever Team Home Services and told the Macarthur Chronicle their business has picked up majorly in the past few weeks.

Ms Azzi said she thinks residents started to get a bit scared once they heard the news of the plague in the Central West.

“In the past three weeks our calls went from one per week in terms of rodents to 50 per week,” Ms Azzi said.

“It tripled in number especially in the newer residential areas but it’s been quite a chaotic time.”

While she thinks mice could be migrating from the west, Ms Azzi also believes this is normal behaviour for the pests going into winter.

“We keep telling our customers with winter hitting us, mice are actually looking for a place to go so they usually start to take place in homes around this time of year,” she said.

“The cold started early and with the heavy rain … it’s hard to say whether it’s a plague coming or whether it’s the season.”

Tayla Azzi said she thinks residents started to get a bit scared once they heard the news of the plague in the Central West. Picture: Tayla Azzi

Ms Azzi said it’s not only Bunnings struggling to keep up with stock, but even her suppliers are having a rough time getting products for pest control.

Despite everything, she said the mice problem is “definitely real”.

“Whether it’s due to the plague, cold weather or recent constructions, and it’s important for each household to make every effort in deterring the mice because it only takes one mouse in the house to turn into many more,” she said.

Ms Azzi urges locals to seal any openings in their home, warning mice can fut under door openings and anything “as thin as a pencil”.

TAYLA AZZI’S TIPS FOR KEEPING MICE OUT:

• Seal off open areas – they can fit into anything as thin as a pencil
• Keep your house clean and clutter free
• If your kitchen isn’t clean and there’s crumbs, that’s where they’re going to go
• Landscaping – keeping grass short will help keep them out
• Book in a rodent control package to stop them from breeding