Small silver lining from north west floods as mice population largely wiped out

Vice-president of the NSW Farmers Xavier Martin, who is based in the Liverpool Plains, said there has been little chatter about the pests this year in the state's north west, although that is largely due to another natural disaster.

"There was baiting going on right through November, particularly in more northern cropping regions with perimeter baiting and whole-of-paddock baiting taking place, but then the flooding came," he said.

"There were flooding rains and basically the mice failed their swimming lessons, the mice disappeared and really there's only the odd rat that survived in the flooding debris."

He said there are likely still mice around haystacks throughout the region, but the problem in incomparable to last year.

While the flooding was itself a disaster, he said the lack of mice attacking the new crops is at least giving farmers time to complete tasks - like applying for rebates from last year.

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"It's given them a breather from the damaging and debilitating experience of mice through our whole farms and farmhouses," he said.

"And it gives them time to access the government support of claiming the mouse bait rebate, so hopefully they can catch their breath after this peak hour of harvest and flooding and a lot of work."

Farmers are still being encouraged to remain vigilant in relation to mice and consider baiting when necessary.

There are also websites such as FeralScan where mice sightings can be logged, helping those who live on the land track the rodents' pathing.

Despite the flooding, southern Queensland and northern NSW are still tipped to be the region with the most mice nation-wide.

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