Rat plague hits coastal towns as thousands of vermin found on beaches

24 November 2023 , 14:50

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Rat plague hits coastal towns as thousands of vermin found on beaches

Thousands of rats have swept up dead on beaches in Australia, with others scurrying across boat ramps and into garden sheds and homes.

The state of Queensland has been battling a rat and mouse plague for months now after a surge in the native rodent population forced the rats to move coastwards in their search for more food. Many do not survive the migratory journey so are then washing up dead on beaches.

"Mate, there's rats everywhere," Derek Lord, a resident from the town of Normanton, told AFP news agency. He continued: "We have hire vehicles and they literally destroyed a car overnight, taking all of the wiring out of the engine bad."

The rats have also infested the neighbouring town of Karumba in the past few weeks and some residents worry they will have an adverse effect on tourism in the area (NSW Farmers)

The rats have also infested the neighbouring town of Karumba in the past few weeks and some residents worry they will have an adverse effect on tourism in the area, Australian media reported. Karumba is well-known as a fishing and birdwatching paradise.

One toe-curling video posted on social media shows tonnes of dead rats piled up by the water, while flies and other insects swarm around them. Another clip shows a large number of them floating in the river. Parts of Queensland and New South Wales have been experiencing a boom in rodent numbers, Australia's national science agency said in a 2021 article.

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Mouse populations have reached plague conditions not seen since 2011, it said. Wet seasons usually stifle the population of canefield rats, killing them in their burrows or disrupting breeding cycles, so the gulf residents might be praying for rain.

Jon Jensen told Nine's 4BC radio: "They come in waves and, I dunno, they almost seem trained and organised but they're there in numbers mate and they swim around in the rivers like little puppy dogs and they're in numbers. They're climbing up all the commercial fishing boats by their anchor chains and any other submersible pumps etc and they're causing havoc with everything mate, you know.

They're hungry, they've swum a long way, they've come across land a long way and they're eating anything and everything they can get their hands on." He joked they were so big his neighbour didn't realise the animal he'd been patting for the last three days wasn't his chihuahua.

He said they are "sort of just learning to live with them." He continued: "I'm personally organising a bit of a training regime to see if I can't get a little rat army going."

Rachel Hagan