Plague of ravenous, destructive mice tormenting Australians

Vast tracts of land in Australia's New South Wales state are being threatened by a mouse plague that the state government describes as “absolutely unprecedented."

"We’re at a critical point now where if we don’t significantly reduce the number of mice that are in plague proportions by spring, we are facing an absolute economic and social crisis in rural and regional New South Wales," Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall said this month. Bruce Barnes said he is taking a gamble by planting crops on his family farm near the central New South Wales town of Bogan Gate. "We just sow and hope," he said.