Images of Australia’s massive mouse plague will haunt your nightmares

Parts of Australia are struggling with a rodent “scourge”.

Large rural areas of the interior of New South Wales and Queensland are overrun by millions of mice, which have invaded farmlands, homes, shops, hospitals and cars. They also eat whatever is in sight.

Reuters reported that the region’s bumper grain harvest has led to an increase in rodent numbers.

“You can imagine that every time you open a cabinet, every time you go to your pantry, there are mice present,” rodent expert Steve Henry told the cable company. “And they eat out of your food containers, they clog your clean laundry in your linen closet, they run across your bed at night.”

They also leave behind haunting videos and images:

On one farm, mice ate hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hay bales, turning them into dust piles within weeks.

“It’s a real kick in the guts,” Coonamble farmer Rowena Macrae told Queensland Country Life. “It’s so hard to watch.”

“They stink whether they’re alive or dead, you can’t escape the scent sometimes,” Coonamble’s Pip Goldsmith, who trapped thousands of mice, told Guardian Australia. “It’s oppressive, but we are resilient.”

Lisa Gore from Toowoomba told the newspaper her 12-year-old son caught 183 in a single night.

“It’s like her job right now,” she says. “He is very proud of himself.”

Local reports say the mouse population continues to grow and efforts to poison rodents have started to backfire as dead creatures end up in water reservoirs. An Elong Elong owner investigating a water blockage encountered an “revolting” smell, according to ABC News in Australia.

“We always filter the water that comes into our house from the tanks, so for us, personally, we feel that we have covered our precautions so as not to notice anything with the taste,” Louise Hennessy told the news agency. . “But the smell of the mice at the top of the tank was so disgusting.”

Public health authorities are now warning of the potential for bacteria in the water if dead mice remain in the tanks.

Authorities said a drop in temperature or heavy rain could wipe out most mice at any time.