Mus musculus domesticus (mouse)

Plants eaten by mice generally have a jagged cut at the point of gnawing. Theyparticularly like to attack the node of cereals when the plants are at thebooting stage.

Although Asian members of the musculus-domesticus complex of species cause damage to crops, they generally cause greater problems postharvest and around dwellings. In Australia, M. musculus domesticus is the only species of house mouse and they are a major preharvest, postharvest and urban pest (Redhead, 1988). House mice are sporadically very serious pests of cereals, legumes, oilseeds, maize and horticultural crops in southern and eastern Australia; these regions are prone to massive outbreaks of mice with densities reaching in excess of 1000 per hectare (Singleton and Redhead, 1989). Approximately 20% of Australia is prone to mouse plagues. The eastern grain-belt is where most plagues take place. Plagues occur aperiodically, and although it is rare for a plague to cover the whole of the eastern grain-belt in any one year, on average there is a plague somewhere in that grain-belt one in every four years. Mouse plagues can be patchy <500 km²) or widespread (500 to 10,000 km²). During 1993 and 1994, losses caused by mouse plagues in southern Australia were greater than (Aus)$ 75 million (Caughley et al., 1994; Croft and Caughley, 1995). Episodic mouse plagues which cause serious losses to crops also occur in the north-west plateau region of China (Yan, 1985). The subspecies causing the problem is M. musculus musculus. Mouse plagues have a major sociological impact because people have to share their living space with literally hundreds of mice each day and night for up to 6 months. It is this commensal nature of mice which causes the greatest economic and social problems throughout most of their geographic range. In Asian and African countries where grain storage facilities are rarely rodent-proof, the most important economic impact of mice is the destruction and fouling of stored grain. The presence of mice also causes important health and environmental problems. Firstly, through indiscriminate or widespread use of chemicals in efforts to control mice and, secondly, because mice are vectors for diseases of humans and their domestic livestock.