In the eastern countryside of Australia, millions of mice have been infesting farms and they have caused countless damage to farmers and townspeople.
At least 800 to 1,000 mice per hectare is considered “plague” proportions by Australia’s National Science Agency, the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization).
Steve Henry, CSIRO researcher, Australia’s best expert on mice plagues said that trying to count the number of mice plaguing eastern Australia right now would “be like trying to count up the stars in the sky,”
A pair of mice can produce 500 offspring more each season, according to the CSIRO, with females birthing a new litter every three weeks.
Farmers and townsfolk have suffered restless nights and had their crops and equipment ruined as these creatures crawl and destroy everything.
Some of them have used industrial chemicals that have been approved by the New South Wales government to control the pests.
However, Andrew, an Aussie farmer has gone to extreme lengths to get rid of the mice plague destroying his crops.
Andrew has uploaded a video on his TikTok account dropping hundreds of rats out of his grain conveyor and into a burning 44-gallon drum.
In the clip, the farmer said that the mice-infested his auger, a corkscrew-like farming machine, by climbing in it to nest and presumably eat leftover grain, after it was used to pump the grain into a silo.
He decided to clean out the machine over a barrel of flames and you can see that the mice are still alive while they fall into the pit of fire. Some run off after hitting the ground, but many fall directly into the open flames, where they die painfully.
Andrew’s technique of getting rid of the mice has gained plenty of support on TikTok, but not everyone was impressed, and he ended up defending himself against the criticisms.
The viral video has been watched more than six million times and gained a lot of critiques.
Someone wrote: “but that’s messed up” Andrew then hit back by saying “your messed up”.
Another viewer said “this is wrong” Andrew hit back again saying “your wrong”.
A third person said that he could have killed the mice a “little bit more humanely”.
Andrew responded: “So baiting them is humane?”
“They die slowly over time … drowning them is humane. Give me a humane way to kill them and I’ll do it.”
Andrew posted a video the next day showing the same setting but no flaming barrels included. Just to show how devasting the mice plague is. It shows dozens of live mice tumbling out of the auger and scampering away to find their next bit of food and multiply.
The ongoing rodent infestation across eastern Australia has caused an estimated $100 million in damage and has worsened a mental health crisis in the regions.
Mice plague could cause $1 billion worth of lost crops and poison baits in New South Wales alone.
Scientists have recommended “napalming” the critters with the poison bromadiolone, but a larger debate has been sparked about what environmental impact it could cause.