Mice Plague Eastern Australia in Record Numbers

A population explosion that began late last year has yet to abate. Meanwhile, researchers are exploring novel approaches to combat the nonnative species.

Written byBianca Nogrady

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ABOVE: Exterminated mice on a farm in Gilgandra, New South Wales
MELANIE MOERIS

Just before Christmas last year, Julie Leven and her husband Des took their camper up to visit their son in northern New South Wales, Australia. Driving back at night to their home in Gilgandra, around 430 kilometers northwest of Sydney, they saw masses of white spots moving across the dark road surface. The spots, they soon realized, were mice.

Once they reached their house, the Levens saw a scene of rodent devastation. Mice had invaded their home in such numbers that it was unlivable. The creatures had gnawed their way into the pantry and ruined all the food they could get into. Their droppings and pungent urine were spread from one end of the dwelling to the other, across soft furnishings and bedding. The rodents had even eaten the insulation around the engine wiring in two tractors and ...

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Meet the Author

Bianca Nogrady
Bianca Nogrady is a freelance science journalist and author who is yet to meet a piece of research she doesn't find fascinating. In addition to The Scientist, her words have appeared in outlets including Nature, The Atlantic, Wired UK, The Guardian, Undark, MIT Technology Review, and the BMJ. She is also author of Climate Change: How We Can Get To Carbon Zero, The End: The Human Experience Of Death, editor of the 2019 and 2015 Best Australian Science Writing anthologies, and coauthor of The Sixth Wave: How To Succeed In A Resource-Limited World. She is based in Sydney, Australia.
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