ABC QLD COUNTRY HOUR | Mouse bait access question raised with rise in mouse activity

As growers are advised to conduct good hygiene practices this harvest to avoid a potential mouse population boom in 2026, the question of effective bait access is in the headlines.

ABC QLD Country Hour speaks to Grain Producers Australia Research Development and Extension Spokesman Andrew Weidemann about the current bait options available and the work GPA is doing to inform regulatory decisions about bait access.

"We've been acutely aware through our colleagues in Queensland and northern New South Wales of a potential emerging mouse plague on the back, of course, of some exceptional growing season conditions for those growers up there, and we've been working and resubmitted the emergency permit for ZP50," he said.

"We've also inserted some new information, obviously, that's come since the lapse of the permit some two years ago.

"We're in the process and been working acutely with the regulator to look at how we can maybe get that emergency permit lifted up again to help the farmers in particular that area, but also become available more broadly if needed in other areas of Australia on the back of, you know, some of the most promising rains I suppose we've seen in a while."

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