Peanut butter.
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That’s Garvoc resident Tanya Wickenton’s tip in how to catch mice with a mouse trap and keep on top on this year’s surge in mice numbers in the south-west.
Ms Wickenton said she used mouse traps instead of mouse baits because she was concerned about other animals taking the baits.
She has set about 10 traps and her constant campaign had enabled her to reduce mouse numbers in her house and focus on those in outdoor buildings.
She estimates she has caught about 60 mice during the past three months as well as five big rats that were eating her pumpkins.
Her cat, though elderly, had also helped reduce mice numbers.
When the mice first arrived in March, she was catching about five or six a night but the catch has since eased to one or two a night.
“It’s been worse this year. They came in earlier (in the year),” Ms Wickenton said.
She said she stored all the food in her pantry in enclosed plastic tubs after a previous mouse invasion and the mice were being caught in other areas of her house, which was an old farmhouse on Garvoc’s outskirts.
She said she had been told that mice numbers had also risen in Terang and Kolora.
Rural merchandise stores in Warrnambool and Koroit have also reported an increase in mice baits this year.
Mice numbers have reached plague proportions this year in northern regions of Victoria and in South Australia, aided by weather conditions and a good food supply from bountiful crop harvests.
The Victorian Farmers Federation said grain producers would soon have more resources to battle the spreading mouse plague that was wreaking havoc with winter crops.
The VFF said mouse bait supplies would increase in the coming week to ten days with the importation to Australia of the raw chemical constituent used to mix mice bait.
VFF grains group president Ross Johns said he understood there had been difficulty sourcing and importing the raw chemical into Australia, including finding adequate supplies and then meeting the required import protocols.
“Grain Producers Australia has been working for the last couple of months to ensure there’s a sufficient supply of bait.
“They’ve also been lobbying to ensure sufficient supply of the base chemical for manufacturers to meet increasing demand.
“We now understand that increased supplies of the mixed bait should be available within the next 10-14 days to enable mixing,” Mr Johns said.
It’s expected the SA agricultural and seeds provider AG Schilling & Co will stock the bait, where it will be mixed and then distributed through an agent in the Horsham area.