Improved surveillance and management options for mice in crops

Mouse plagues are a regular feature of grain growing regions across Australia. Growers and the broader grains industry need to be made aware of potential mouse problems so they can take appropriate management actions to reduce the chance of crop damage and significant cost to their business. The monitoring is used to collect information about the population size, breeding status and overall activity of mice. This information is used in predictive models to determine the probability of changes in mouse abundance. All the information from the monitoring and outputs from the models is synthesised into a 'Mouse Update' that is released three times a year. The aim being to widely disseminate through various channels clear recommendations for growers.

As it is not possible to monitor every cropping system across the grain belt, the investment will also explore the development of an automated remote monitoring system for mice. This may be linked in with existing wireless networks and systems to record mouse activity and upload data to a central database to interpret the data and include in broader monitoring.