Got a mouse in your house? That thought alone may terrify you.

Now imagine if mice were scampering through your house, rummaging in your pantry or even running across your face at night.

That sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but it’s what many Australians have experienced when living through a mouse plague.

Mouse plagues can be economically and psychologically devastating, particularly for rural communities. This is because mice destroy crops, spread disease and damage the natural environment.

Currently, farmers across two Australian states are battling a potential mouse plague. And it’s an unsettling reminder of the mouse plagues of 2020 and 2021 that ravaged farms and rural communities across Australia’s east coast.

So what’s causing this latest plague? And how are farmers coping?

Mice have been a part of the Australian environment ever since they arrived with the First Fleet in 1788. Since then, they’ve rapidly bred and spread all around the country.

In some areas, mice populations can reach plague proportions. This means there are at least 800 mice per hectare of land. The first documented mouse plague happened in 1872 in the South Australian town of........

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