Mice

More years ago than I care to remember, I worked at the old City of Birmingham Library. At night the mice used to come out and dart around our feet as we sat in the tea room. They were quite endearing.

There’s nothing endearing about the mouse plague that has afflicted the Central West of NSW and Queensland for the past few months. The mice destroy everything – crops, food, electrical wiring and insulation, furnishings, crops, businesses. We thought the floods might put an end to the plague, but they didn’t. Neither have huge amounts of baits and poison. It seems the plague will only end when the mouse numbers become so large that they destroy themselves, through overcrowding, disease and starvation. It’s not a happy thought.