After fire and floods, Aussie farmers suffer devastating mouse plague

After surviving years of crippling drought, farmers in eastern Australia are locked in a months-long battle with hordes of mice that are pouring through fields and devouring hard-earned crops.

After surviving years of crippling drought, farmers in eastern Australia are locked in a months-long battle with hordes of mice that are pouring through fields and devouring hard-earned crops. Farmer Col Tink uses a broom to skittle hundreds of roving mice toward a makeshift industrial trap -- essentially a large tub of water where they drown. It is a brutally simple attempt to slow the plague that has engulfed his farm -- near the rural town of Dubbo -- and thousands of other farms like it across eastern Australia. But Tink's efforts have barely made a dent. Mice continue to chew through grain and hay stocks while anything remotely edible remains under constant attack.