Hidden in the dark, the terror of the dark, is a herd of thousands of mice. Wander around the wheat cellar at the Fragar family farm, a seven-hour drive from Sydney. The drought is over, and the Fragar family’s first good harvest in years is being ravaged by rats. But the Fragars weren’t the only victims. Countless farms along Australia’s eastern grain belt are facing a rat epidemic described as the worst in public memory, according to New York Times . Rats in the grain warehouse at the Fragar family farm. Photo: New York Times. The rat epidemic came after years of bountiful crops màng On average, every 10 years, Australia faces a rat epidemic. This year, the rats appeared after a year of favorable rain and wind in 2020. The crops were bountiful, the farmers’ food stores were full, becoming an ideal food source for the rats to multiply. This year’s rat epidemic is also partly caused by the change in people’s farming methods. In the past, farmers used to burn the stubble after each crop, before sowing began. But over the past 15 years, Australian farmers have started sowing seeds directly on the trunks of old food crops, to protect the environment. It was this change that created an additional food supply as well as an ideal nesting place for the rats. Both natural and man-made factors, combined with the rapid reproductive cycle – a single mother can give birth to 6-10 pups in 3 weeks, have caused the rat population to explode into the tens of thousands. million children. Meanwhile, the Australian government has been criticized for its slow response. Recently, after a long period of rat epidemic raging, the New South Wales state government lifted the ban on the use of bromadiolone poison, which is considered a “napal bomb” for rats. Rats on a grain tarpaulin at a farm in Tottenham. Photo: AP. Tottenham is a small town in the midwest region of the state of New South Wales. Residents here said they have never seen a rat epidemic as long as it is now in the past. Winter is now slowly coming to the southern hemisphere, including Australia. Cold weather slows down the growth of mice. Robert Brodin, the owner of a shop in Tottenham, said the number of rats he catches each morning is now 15-20, down by nearly half compared to the previous time. However, Mr. Brodin expressed skepticism about the possibility that the rat epidemic would end just through winter. “They used to say, once they (rats) start eating each other, the rat epidemic will pass. But they have been eating each other since December 2020 and nothing has changed,” Mr. Brodin said. Steve Henry, an expert on rat diseases in Australia, admits it is difficult to predict when the current rat epidemic will pass. Mr. Henry said the rat epidemic can only end when it has peaked. “The epidemic will end when there are too many rats in the ecosystem, all of them interacting with each other, causing the disease to spread quickly. At the same time, the rats run out of food, they will be both sick and hungry, that is when they will attack each other and eat the young,” expert Henry predicted. If the rat population survives the winter in large numbers, the size of the rat population will explode again in the spring, then the situation could be worse. Until the rat epidemic is over, it will continue to be a psychological burden for people living in the areas directly affected. Life turned upside down “I feel like I’m watching the rats gnaw away at the family’s future,” said Kathy Fragar. During the first half of 2021, the rat epidemic has spread across southern Queesland, New South Wales and northern Victoria, the three wealthiest eastern states in Australia. “The rat epidemic is the flip side of a rare lucky year out of the worst drought in a century.” New York Times comment. Not only attacking crops, rats even attack people in the house. They get into the air conditioning system, destroy household appliances, eat poultry. Communication systems in some areas of Australia were disrupted when rats bitten telecommunications cables. Rats biting power lines also short-circuited and set a house on fire in New South Wales. Mr. Terry Klante emptied the rat out of the trap. Photo: New York Times. The rat epidemic makes people do things every day that no one is interested in. At the stores, employees set traps every night, and in the morning drown the rats they catch. In residential areas, “cremation yards” sprang up, where people bring the bodies of rats they find or kill for incineration. Hospitals also struggle with hygiene requirements against the invasion of rats. Jeff Fragar, the family’s ranch owner, said the loss of wheat storage was noticeable due to rat infestation. Mr. Fragar hopes to be able to sell 500 tonnes of the 700 tonnes of wheat already harvested on the farm. Even with such an optimistic figure, the family still lost $30,000. Many farmers find themselves in a situation where their goods are returned because rats are found in their lots. Mr. Fragar said the family’s biggest concern right now is the risk of not being able to continue growing the next crop. The Fragar family farm is in its infancy. The swarm of rats will eat whatever seed man sows in the ground. But if we continue to wait, the ideal time for sowing will pass, the farm is at risk of crop failure, or even no crop to harvest. The NSW Farmers lobby group warned New South Wales could lose billions of dollars as the rat epidemic affects the upcoming wheat, barley and canola crops. “We haven’t been able to plant anything for three years now because of the drought. We’ve only had half a year of good weather, and then the rats have ruined everything. If the weather doesn’t continue to be favorable, I can saying that our luck has run out. The bank will no longer help us,” said Mr. Fragar. Can only wait Jo Randall lives more than 100 kilometers south of the Fragars’ farm. The woman said she cried when she discovered that the rats had entered the house and destroyed the furniture. The Randalls consider themselves lucky because they were able to protect the farm from rats, by actively trapping and burning the farmland. But the Randalls live in an old house, with many cracks, easily infested by rats. Even when it was cold in the morning, Mrs. Randall often had to open the window to release the stench from the rats. A domestic dog chases mice under a grain-covered canvas on the farm of George Greig’s family. Photo: New York Times. In the house, there were traces of rats everywhere. Mrs. Randall’s phone case was crushed at the edge. The sound system of the family is damaged by biting the wire. Rats leave teeth marks on many other household objects. For Mrs. Randall, the ultimate limit was the rats getting into the bed. This finally happened, when the woman found rat droppings on the bed sheet. “Ultimately we have to accept the fact that we’re not going to win this war, we’re not going to get rid of the rats. The best we can do is wait for the rat epidemic to pass,” Ms. Randall said. .

For months, rats have ravaged fields and damaged homes in eastern Australia, from the Victorian border in the south to Queensland in the north, causing millions of dollars in damage to crops and machinery. A pair of mice can give birth to 500 more pups per season, the females give birth to a new litter every three weeks, and they constantly need more food. Rat “nightmare” for farmers in New South Wales, Australia. Photo: Pelgar International. The New South Wales government is considering a more drastic solution. On May 20, officials announced they had acquired 5,000 liters of one of the world’s most powerful rat poisons to treat rats. However, some residents fear the use of poisons could damage food crops and kill local wildlife. End of drought, Australia meets rats again “We’ve had long, bad years of drought, and then 2020 is going to be beautiful. But there’s always something great happening, and this year it’s a rat pandemic,” said farmer Michael Payten of the small town of Canowindra, west of Sydney, sigh. The rainfall in 2020 is roughly equal to the total rainfall two years earlier, making the soil fertile and yielding a bountiful harvest, but also creating ideal conditions for the rats. “Trying to count the number of rats that are harming Eastern Australia is like counting the stars in the sky,” said CSIRO researcher Steve Henry, considered by the New South Wales government to be Australia’s best expert on the disease. in mice, said. Rat extermination expert Sue Hodge clears dead rats from traps in her client’s home every day in the New South Wales town of Canowindra. Photo: CNN. According to Sue Hodge, a rat extermination expert in Canowindra, when winter approaches, rats even take refuge in people’s homes. Ms. Hodge spends her days dealing with dead rats trapped in a client’s home. She removed rat droppings from the kitchen, the children’s room and even their beds. In her home, Mrs. Hodge used steel wool to prevent rats from crawling in from every nook and cranny. She sets a mousetrap every night. According to the New South Wales Agricultural industry group, the loss of cereal groups such as wheat, barley and rapeseed, as well as forage, is having a major impact on the finances of farm businesses. The survey found that a third of businesses had an estimated loss of $50,000-150,000 ($38,000-116,000). The group warned that the total damage could reach hundreds of millions of dollars if urgent action is not taken. Government measures – immediate but too dangerous The New South Wales government is resorting to “heavy weapons” to end the rat disaster, after weeks of consultations with Mr Henry, CSIRO and farmers. Last week, New South Wales agriculture chief Adam Marshall unveiled “a scary set of tools for rat control”, including free rat poison for farmers. This week, thousands of liters of bromadiolone – a “second generation anticoagulant” has been introduced to effectively kill rats. However, Charles Sturt University ecologist Dr Maggie Watson says the toxin is “too dangerous” to use in the environment, as it can leach into the soil and bioaccumulate in insects. then join the food chain. She said native birds in Australia are all at risk of death after eating a poisoned mouse, and it takes up to 15-20 years for them to come back to life. NSW farmer Michael Payten calls his tractor shed a “rat hotel”. Photo: CNN. Proponents of the administration argue that bromadiolone is highly toxic and will likely kill some native predators, but there aren’t enough hawks and owls for the rat population to drop naturally. While the rat population is unusually high, farmers warn that they are running out of time to harvest the winter crop.