Free Republic

Since early 2021 much of regional Australia is experiencing a mouse plague. The rodents have kept multiplying through the summer, and are expected to continue to do so even through the winter, potentially threatening crops. Now look at the result! It’s apocalyptic: Hundreds of thousands of mice are ransacking sheds and houses, getting onto and into everything across NSW, Qld, SA and Victoria, Australia. The rodents are munching through crops and wiring, and to the horror of home owners they’ve even been found in bags of bread. The whole district smells of mice. Why this mouse plague? Rainfall and good...

There’s a bumper crop of squirrels in New England, and the frenetic critters are frustrating farmers by chomping their way through apple orchards, pumpkin patches and corn fields. The varmints are fattening themselves for winter while destroying the crops with bite marks. Robert Randall, who has a 60-acre orchard in Standish, Maine, said he’s never seen anything like it. “They’re eating the pumpkins. They’re eating the apples. They’re raising some hell this year. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said. Evidence of the squirrel population explosion is plain to see along New England’s highways, where the critters are becoming...

Warm weather this year has contributed to a resurgence in the mid-Atlantic region’s brown marmorated stink bug population, with researchers estimating at least a 60 percent increase this year in insects that soon will be making their way indoors to escape cooling temperatures. Record summer heat that lasted through September favored the resurgence of stink bugs, which breed twice a year — in spring and summer. Michael Raupp, entomology professor at the University of Maryland, said the favorable conditions enabled the bugs to complete their second breeding cycle in “spectacular fashion,” meaning they are poised to invade homes and businesses...

(Memphis 6/1/2010) A mystery is unfolding across MidSouth farms. Something is killing crops, trees, even weeds and nobody can explain why. Farmers are scratching their heads and some are worried their crops may be lost to the mysterious plague. It's happening along a large swath of land near the Shelby and Tipton county border along Herring Hill Road and elsewhere near the Mississippi River bottoms. Tiny dots appear to have burned onto leaves of all types of plants, and they appear different depending on the plant. On corn stalks, the dots seem to turn white in the center. On other...

Cold snap wilts crops, inflates market prices April 30, 2010 Discarded watermelons ruined by the unusually cold weather and lack of sunshine are piled next to a greenhouse in Haman, South Gyeongsang, while rain drizzles on Wednesday. [YONHAP] Baby, it’s cold outside. And that’s why you’re spending more at the fruit, vegetable and fish markets. Although the temperature yesterday was up a bit, Thursday’s high in Seoul, 7.8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit), was a record low for that date. The previous record for a cold day in April was 10.1 degrees in 1962. It even snowed in Gangwon yesterday....

‘Fla. is not supposed to be cold like this’ Farmers fear bitter freeze could destroy strawberries and other crops The Associated Press updated 7:42 a.m. ET Jan. 6, 2010 COLUMBIA, S.C. - Florida farmers worked to salvage millions of dollars worth of crops and sun-seeking tourists were met with chilly temperatures expected to last through the weekend as an unusual Southern cold snap gripped the Gulf states on Wednesday. A hard freeze warning was issued along the Gulf Coast, including most of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Forecasters say the dangerously cold air mass could force temperatures into the...