Mice are running riot at the NSW Orana region farm of Norman Moeris, ruining hay worth "about $70,000".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"And I'm not the only one, there's other blokes that have lost a lot more hay than I have," he said.
"Hay sheds are just disintegrated."
The invading rodents have also forced him to sell his barley for whatever price he can get, because they're "just wiping the bags out".
The scale of the problem is shown in video captured by his daughter-in-law and posted to social media, which has garnered about 1400 comments.
"The mice, they stink," Mr Moeris said.
The lifelong farmer has described the terrible toll of "unbelievable" numbers of mice, building up on the Gilgandra farm since November, when he had one of the best harvests for years.
Mr Moeris said it was "not just the monetary situation".
"The native birds, they've wiped them out," he said.
"The little blue-tongue lizards, they've eaten them.
"I've got a bit of a bird aviary, they're eating the eggs off the budgies and quarrions.
"The chooks, they haven't laid for two months, they just started picking on their legs a little bit in the past couple of weeks."
READ MORE:
The mice show no more respect for the family home, Mr Moeris saying they had to be careful with groceries.
Small insects living on the mice had become a problem as well, he reported.
"You come home at night, you've got to have a decent shower because you've got all those little mites all over you, they bite and some people get a bit of reaction to it," he said.
"My wife's got some little dogs and she's got to keep bathing them, they're just covered in it."
The farmer said he knew of vehicles being burnt out, trucks' wiring being chewed to pieces, and damage to washing machines and dryers. His daughter at Moree had found mice getting into her baby's bassinet, he said.
Mr Moeris said he had lived through mouse plagues in the 1970s and 1980s, and the latest was "totally different".
"This is more widespread, there's more grain on the ground because we've had a big harvest from the north to the south," he said.
The family endured three years of drought, before the situation finally turned around in 2020.
But it would take "probably four or five average years" to get back to where they were before the drought, Mr Moeris said.
Now his mind is on the imminent winter cropping season.
If the rain of the past week, which had already "slowed them up" killed at least 70 to 90 per cent" of the mice, it would be all right, but if it didn't, it was "going to be a nightmare", Mr Moeris said.
"And a lot of people are counting on it again," he said.
Despite all the mess and the damage, the 64-year-old is somewhat philosophical.
"Keep smiling, it's got to get better," he said.
Faye Wheeler
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
