The idea that mice "move across the landscape in a wave" is not what actually happens, a specialist in the field reports.
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An area from Armatree northwards is now dealing with "a full-blown plague", CSIRO research officer Steve Henry says.
But more mice being seen in other parts of the Orana region, including the Parkes district, is not because the rodents have migrated from home, but because "isolated populations" have grown, he says.
"That's one of the concepts we try to get away from is this whole idea that mice move across the landscape in a wave," he said.
"In fact it is just a lot of isolated populations that get bigger and bigger and all join in together."
Mr Henry says he hears a lot of stories about wet and cold weather stopping mice, and while winter will "slow down" breeding, it probably will not result in a "monumental crash".
"So instead of in this population that's increasing exponentially, it will start to plateau off, and hopefully mouse numbers will start to decline through the winter, because conditions are tougher in the winter in general," he said.
"But in terms of causing that monumental crash in numbers, frosty or cold or wet weather, that probably won't happen, but certainly the numbers should slow down as we go into winter, as winter progresses, and they stop breeding."
Mr Henry said the CSIRO was not receiving "any reports of mouse numbers declining from anywhere at the moment".
"And when they do start to decline, we do hear about it, because at the end of an outbreak, the crash in populations is very dramatic and very sudden, and people actually start ringing us and say 'hey where did all the mice go?'," he said.
"And of course, we're hopeful it will get to that point shortly, but we just can't predict it."
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