NSW farmer Glenn Daley uses old 1984 trick to kill dozens of infestations amid crippling mice plague

A farmer says a trick he used to fight the devastating mice plague of 1984 is ‘working a treat’ in 2021. Now he’s sharing his secret with Australia.

A NSW farmer claims he has the solution to the state’s devastating mice plague – and all you need is a bucket, an empty wine bottle, a sock or old pair of jeans and peanut butter.

Beef cattle farmer Glenn Daley has killed dozens of mice every night at his property in the central west region of Cowra by carving a hole into a bucket, wedging a wine bottle through the hole and smearing peanut butter on the bottle’s opening.

He attached an old pair of jeans to the end of the bottle to encourage the mice to scamper up the leg onto the slippery wine bottle as they tried to get a taste of the peanut butter.

And if you didn’t have an old jean leg to spare, a stocking or sock could work just as well, the 48-year-old said.

Queensland farmer Glenn Daley says he trapped dozens of mice every night with this inventive mouse trap.

It was at the point of tasting the spread at the tip of the bottle that the mice slip and plunge to their death.

The ongoing rodent infestation across eastern Australia has forced farmers to go to extreme lengths and think outside the box about how to regain control of their land.

Overwhelming infestations have caused an estimated $100 million in damage and triggered a mental health crisis among distraught farmers in the regions.

Some property owners have lost as much as $300,000 each in ruined crops as the mice chewed through anything they could sink their teeth into.

If you didn’t have an old jean leg to spare, a stocking or sock could also work to trap the mice.

The Woodstock farmer said his inventive mouse trap was an “old trick” he used to fight the mice plague in 1984, when he was just 12 years old.

“It works great – it‘s very simple to make and really cheap,” he told NCA NewsWire.

“You just set it and forget it – leave it for a few days and when you go back and check there might be four or forty mice.”

Grain and hay bales have been devastated as mice infestations inundate farms across eastern Australia. Picture: Supplied

While Mr Daley said there were more than a hundred rodents scampering around his property, he acknowledged it was nowhere near the devastation in other parts of NSW or Queensland.

He likened the disaster to the mice plague of 1984 where he was forced to walk around his farm wearing rubber bands at the bottom of his jeans to stop mice from crawling up his legs.

“I remember they (mice) would devastate all of the hay bales. You’d pick up a bag of grain and there’d be at least a couple of hundred mice on the ground,” Mr Daley said.

“It was like what you’re seeing in the worst-hit towns at the moment. We’d shine the car lights into the shed at night and it would be like a moving carton of grey.

“We’d need to wash all dishes before and after use because they were crawling around cupboards everywhere. It was just a nightmare.”

At the time, Mr Daley said farmers in the region were trying “anything and everything” to catch the mice in bulk, which sparked his ingenious 2021 mouse trap.

“I’m catching anywhere between four and 40 a night in this trap,” he said.

He said his invention was superior to a traditional mouse trap because it didn’t need resetting or rebaiting.

A MouseAlert map shows the extent of the mice plague in eastern Australia. Picture: MouseAlert

While NSW has seen the most rodents, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia have also been affected by the scourge.

Infestations have hit schools, hospitals, supermarkets and family homes, with farmers the worst hit as they grapple with surging costs of pest control and destruction of crops.

The mice plague started in spring last year during the harvest season, caused by a combination of ideal weather conditions for breeding and a bountiful grain harvest.