Mouse Monitoring & Surveillance

We’re using a range of techniques and tools to gather information about house mouse activity in grain growing regions throughout Australia. These include engaging grain growers and regular on-the-ground monitoring of sites. We’re also working alongside MouseAlert to gauge mouse activity and damage across farming regions.

We’re developing novel remote monitoring technology to increase and enhance our surveillance of mice throughout the year and over more regions.

Mouse monitoring

Since 2012 we’ve been undertaking on-the-ground monitoring of mouse populations in grain-growing regions. From this monitoring data we can use predictive models to forecast mouse outbreaks and communicate increases in mouse activity to growers and industry.

We monitor mouse activity three times a year- Autumn, Winter and Spring for sites in southern Australia, and Summer, Winter and Spring for northern sites. A rapid assessment of mouse activity is undertaken at 130 sites and live-capture trapping of mice at four benchmark sites. These sites comprise key grain-growing regions in South Australia (Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, Adelaide Plains), Victoria (Northern Mallee, Wimmera), NSW (Coleambally Irrigation Area, Central West, Moree region) and Queensland (Goondiwindi region, Darling Downs).

Monitoring techniques

We’re collecting data about mouse activity and abundance at multiple sites through rapid assessment monitoring. Chew cards are set up 10m apart in a 100m transect line in paddocks and mouse burrows are marked with cornflour. Sites are revisited the next day to assess whether cards have been chewed and burrows are active. Rapid assessment monitoring is easy to set up and is an effective mouse monitoring tool for growers to use- see our Resources page for further information.

We undertake live-capture trapping of mice for three consecutive nights at benchmark sites. From this we can gauge mouse abundance as well as reproductive status, health condition and population structure.

Mouse Updates

From our monitoring we produce three updates on mouse activity a year for growers and industry which includes advice on recommended management strategies. Updates are available here and are also published on the GRDC and MouseAlert pages.