Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 147 posts

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#71

Post by quickthrowman »

coldcode wrote: post #4
joncrane wrote: post #2

When I read that article, all I could think of was this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Pyu-Cj0gg (In case you're sensitive, it's farmers using pitchforks to turn soil in a fallow or recently harvested field that is ridden with rats, which flushes the rats. There are a handful of ratting dogs milling about which immediately chase and kill the rats. The way they do it is the dog grabs the rat in it's mouth an…

I wonder how many cats every house needs to rid it of mice. Given the volume, I doubt there are enough cats in Australia to even make a dent.

> I wonder how many cats every house needs to rid it of mice.

Anecdotally, one.

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#72

Post by saul_goodman »

Nerada wrote: post #22
joncrane wrote: post #2

When I read that article, all I could think of was this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Pyu-Cj0gg (In case you're sensitive, it's farmers using pitchforks to turn soil in a fallow or recently harvested field that is ridden with rats, which flushes the rats. There are a handful of ratting dogs milling about which immediately chase and kill the rats. The way they do it is the dog grabs the rat in it's mouth an…

That was an incredibly interesting watch, I had no idea this was a thing. Is there something special about where they're digging for it to be plagued with such a large amount of rats? It looks like it would take weeks to cover all of their land with this digging + dog method.

It looks maby like the remains of a row of haylage. Basically chopped corn, stalk and all, which is used to feed livestock. Usually you see this stuff in long white bags in the US country side, but there are multiple ways to store it. The stuff smells ferocious and self ferments. So they've probably used up the previous years haylage pile and now they are cleaning house so the rats don't totally mow down the spring planting their about to do.

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#73

Post by saul_goodman »

seunosewa wrote: post #8

As an African, my first thought on seeing the pictures was that it’s a shame that the dead mice (that were caught in traps or by dogs) aren’t being used to make pet food or to feed zoo animals after cooking them thoroughly in large pots.

If you consider those mice I'd hate to see what you consider to be rats!

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#74

Post by cptskippy »

clairity wrote: post #26
joncrane wrote: post #2

When I read that article, all I could think of was this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2Pyu-Cj0gg (In case you're sensitive, it's farmers using pitchforks to turn soil in a fallow or recently harvested field that is ridden with rats, which flushes the rats. There are a handful of ratting dogs milling about which immediately chase and kill the rats. The way they do it is the dog grabs the rat in it's mouth an…

> "The way they do it is the dog grabs the rat in it's mouth and shakes its head wildly." my dog is a terrier/spitz mix and shows this behavior in play (from the terrier side, the spitz side just makes her pretty =). she'll grab a stick or other small item and shake it wildly while bucking about. most people think it's hilarious until i tell them why she does it. =D

Many people forget that dog breeds exist for specific purposes and not just for looks. Just as mastiffs were bread to pull knights from horses, many small dogs were bread for rodent and pest control.

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#75

Post by vram22 »

preommr wrote: post #38

This happens every 10 years or so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWVw-j8eYSk There's videos from the last one where there's just entire seas of mice, crawling around everywhere. It's not in this video, but I remember problems like mice straight up eating away at live pigs stuck in their pens.

Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, as well as Chin State in Myanmar, have a huge rat problem every N years, related to a bamboo species flowering and fruiting. Extra food, they breed more, flowers/fruits gone, they starve, they raid granaries, fields, houses, etc., people die of famine.

Edit: corrected Assam to other nearby state names, based on:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mautam

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#76

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

syntaxing wrote: post #3

Honestly thought it was an exaggerated title but reading the article says otherwise. That’s a lot of mouse. Is it because the habitat is missing the right predators due to climate change?

Mice only came to Australia about two centuries ago. The ecology has been ruined by imported species.

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#77

Post by fatsdomino001 »

JoshTko wrote: post #63

This is one of the result of climate crisis. As complex environments get disrupted over time they become less and less diverse allowing for more booms and busts of single species. The wildfires last year probably wiped out a lot of the mice predators.

This reminds me that much of the talk around climate change can't be considered scientific because it's simply not falsifiable. If everything can be attributable to climate change, nothing can be.

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#78

Post by path411 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #50
eknkc wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m Turkish and I find it interesting that the US and European cities are dealing with mouse / rat issues. We have tons of cats roaming the streets. I guess that’s the reason but I have ever seen one or maybe 2 live rats in my entire life.

When I visited Athens, the massive colonies of feral cats were very notable. They could take over parks. American culture is specifically oriented toward preventing this kind of thing from happening. A feral cat is judged to be in need of a home. And there is a very widespread popular effort to say that you are doing something immoral if you don't spay your cat -- if a fertile cat did go feral, it might have children…

I live in a major us city and there has to be 30+ feral cats within my block it's crazy.

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#79

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

saul_goodman wrote: post #73
seunosewa wrote: post #8

As an African, my first thought on seeing the pictures was that it’s a shame that the dead mice (that were caught in traps or by dogs) aren’t being used to make pet food or to feed zoo animals after cooking them thoroughly in large pots.

If you consider those mice I'd hate to see what you consider to be rats!

What do you mean? These are definitely regular mice, they're small.

Rats are much larger and can grow to quite large!

Re: Mouse plague grows to biblical proportions across eastern Australia

#80

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

seunosewa wrote: post #12
GavinMcG wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an analogous practice in your region? (Is it also subject to mouse plagues, or is there another way enough rodents are gathered?)

People roast and eat wild rodents like rats as “bush meat” but to my knowledge they don’t eat mice. If we had a plague of mice we would certainly find a way to utilize them.

Separating the digestive system from all those little bodies would be tedious for not a whole lot of gain, a few tens of grams of muscle meat and organs per mouse.
Post reply on HN