Mouse abundance for April 2024
There have been reports of sporadic moderate to high mouse activity from several Australian grain growing regions, including southern Queensland, where 3 sites had high activity (with up to 800 burrows/ha at one site). See the April GRDC/CSIRO Mouse Update for more information.
High mice numbers when winter crops are planted can result in significant economic damage, and summer crops (sorghum, corn etc) can be susceptible to mouse damage as they mature.
Most current activity has been patchy, so a good monitoring program is essential. Use mouse chew cards (available from GRDC or call 1800 110044) and look for burrows. If mouse activity is sufficient to warrant baiting, note that the APVMA emergency permit for higher rates of zinc phosphide has lapsed—current baits are ZnP25 (25 g/kg).
If you find mice (or even if you don’t), please report your tally on MouseAlert (www.mousealert.org.au) so that others can see the level of activity in their local area. All monitoring programs are only as good as the data received, so the more observations the program gets, the more useful it will be. There’s Apple and Android MouseAlert apps available, and you can follow the program on X (formerly Twitter) using @MouseAlert
Visit GRDC’s Mouse Management page for detailed information about monitoring techniques and management options.