Australia’s mouse plague: First came the drought, then the floods, now millions of mice

Farmers in Australia are burning their own crops.

They’re desperate to escape an epic plague infesting their hay. First came the drought. Then, the floods.

Now, the mice.

Colin Tink, 63, has been farming all his life and has never experienced a mouse plague like the one ravaging Australia’s eastern grain belt. Nor a drought like the one that preceded it, which turned fertile crop areas into dust bowls.

When the rains finally came last year, Tink thought his fortunes were changing.

The rain led to bumper crops through the spring and summer months (September to March in the Southern Hemisphere). Silos are overflowing with grain. And barns are piled high with hay. Tink grew enough hay to feed his cattle for two years.

Then the mice arrived. Thousands of them.

The vermin burrow deep into his hay. What they don’t eat is ruined anyway as their urine trickles down through the bales. The smell is acrid. It sticks in your nose and lingers on your clothes.

“It breaks your heart a bit,” Tink said. “We’re back to square one.”