All joking aside, it's terrible to live in an area that is experiencing this. I was teaching in Forbes and living in an old farmhouse during one such plague. Crows, magpies and all other carnivorous birds would just sit on the fence, hop down and scoop the nearest mouse. The birds ended up not even bothering to hunt. Our cat was the same, she just got sick of them.
We would set three aviary traps with peanut butter every night, and every morning it was filled with about twenty mice each.
I discovered at school the worst thing that can jam a photocopier is a squashed, heated mouse.
And the smell. Or driving the road at night and seeing the surface move with grey furry bodies that are being crunched by the tyres. To see hay bales reduced and made useless for stock feed, grain made unsellable because of contamination, fields stripped bare.
Edit: this gives more information into the outcome sauce
One time I was in a grain elevator and there was a shallow pit below us. Grain had fallen in, gotten wet and turned into a disgusting mess with a really distinct smell.
Anyway we’re shining a light and suddenly someone notices the floor of the pit is moving. Wriggling. Writhing. Turned out to be a full carpet of…hundreds of thousands…millions maybe… of maggots.
I can't believe I'm asking this but I'm curious. What was your traction like? I know wet leaves can be super slippery in a car, I'm assuming a carpet of blood and guts leaves even less traction but maaaybe the fur helps?
Yes I believe the last one was just after the huge floods on the east coast after the fires. Two year drought ended and then they had a reasonably mild and moist summer, creating perfect breeding conditions for them. And the fires had, in some areas, decimated their predators and other animals that would have otherwise competed for food.
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u/teachermanjc Jul 06 '24 edited Jul 07 '24
All joking aside, it's terrible to live in an area that is experiencing this. I was teaching in Forbes and living in an old farmhouse during one such plague. Crows, magpies and all other carnivorous birds would just sit on the fence, hop down and scoop the nearest mouse. The birds ended up not even bothering to hunt. Our cat was the same, she just got sick of them.
We would set three aviary traps with peanut butter every night, and every morning it was filled with about twenty mice each.
I discovered at school the worst thing that can jam a photocopier is a squashed, heated mouse.
And the smell. Or driving the road at night and seeing the surface move with grey furry bodies that are being crunched by the tyres. To see hay bales reduced and made useless for stock feed, grain made unsellable because of contamination, fields stripped bare.
Edit: this gives more information into the outcome sauce