A Dubbo pest controller was called on to protect "millions of dollars' worth of electrical equipment" from mice during this year's plague and he's in demand again.
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Kyle Watts has reported of receiving a "fair few calls" in a two-week period recently about the rodents "coming back in some areas of town".
The Don Watts Pest Control co-owner is preparing for a spring surge in mouse numbers, stocking up on bait and starting up routine maintenance programs at some businesses.
"We do believe that it's coming back," Mr Watts said.
It's been only a short break from the rodent problems that had the business working around the clock for desperate clients for months.
After emerging as an issue in spring last year, Mr Watts said it then worsened and was a "heavy situation" until about April.
They were still receiving a fair number of calls about mice until June, he said.
Among the jobs the third-generation business took on was controlling mice zeroing in on a building with "millions of dollars' worth of electrical equipment" inside, Mr Watts said.
"If [the mice] were to get into that building that would have cost them millions of dollars but luckily we got them under control," Mr Watts said.
One client near Dubbo had mice chew through assets that would have cost "probably $10,000 plus", he said. Houses had also sustained damage, "all over Dubbo".
Mr Watts had never used as much bait in his 11 years in the industry as this year, and told of talking to farmers and others who said it "wasn't far from being one of the worst plagues" they had seen.
The family business pulled out all stops not just to minimise monetary damage, but also because of the health risks.
"When you've got a mice problem in the house, especially... it got to the point where the mice were crawling over kids in their beds," Mr Watts said.
...it got to the point where the mice were crawling over kids in their beds.
- Don Watts Pest Control co-owner Kyle Watts
"We had a few clients call us [saying] they were actually biting them in their sleep, and so we had to make them more of a priority.
"...Obviously they were urgent jobs, and not just because it's a mice problem, but it's also a health issue and can bring a danger into a household, if it gets too badly infested."
The Don Watts team worked "nearly every weekend" for about three months and after hours, getting to as many jobs as they could, and if they couldn't, they offered advice and helped link people up with other pest controllers, the co-owner said.
Mr Watts, whose grandfather started the business in 1966, had also been conscious "the whole COVID situation" meant many people were struggling and found it difficult to meet the unexpected expense.
He said they'd done their best to make mouse control affordable for clients, and understood others in the industry had done the same.
"We dropped our prices a fair bit and I said we just were there, not so much to - everyone's got to make a bit of money but we also wanted to help out as much as we could," he said.
"We thought it was a time to try and help out, try and just help out the community that supported us throughout the 55 years really."
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Faye Wheeler
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
