Australia, right now, feels a little biblical. There was a terrible drought, then the worst bush fires ever recorded. A flood came next. Now it’s the turn of the mice. The scale of the mouse plague is hard to comprehend. In the western districts of New South Wales (NSW), the country’s most populous state, millions of mice are now on the march. There are also serious infestations in southern Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.

According to the Country Women’s Association, farmers have been bitten in their beds, with some protecting themselves from incursions by placing each leg of their bed or child’s cot in a bucket of sand or water. In three towns, the mice even managed to invade the local hospital, biting patients.

“People have become exhausted,” he tells me. “There are mice in their linen press, in their pantry, running across their beds, eating their food. Every day, when they get up, there are mice. Every night, when they go to bed, there are mice.”

Not that they don’t now have some competition. In breaking news, the mouse plague has now created a snake plague.

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