Rat plague destroys phone cables in flood-hit Qld

Plagues of rats have invaded flood-hit Queensland communities, breeding in abandoned homes and chomping through phone cables.

The problem's so bad at Goodna, in Ipswich west of Brisbane, that a crack team of rat-hunting fox terriers will hit the streets on Thursday.

Ipswich councillor Paul Tully says war's been declared on the rotund rodents.

The fox terrier squad will help root out nests so baits can be laid.

If the dogs, on loan from the Brisbane City Council, do a good job, Ipswich might acquire its own team.

"It's unique for Ipswich we've never used dogs before," he told AAP.

"If a rat gets out and escapes these dogs just go completely mental."

Tully said only about 30 of Goodna's 600 flooded homes had been re-occupied, and the rodents had moved in and bred like crazy over the past five months.

Goodna resident Keiron Butler said there'd been a surge in rats on his property, but his greyhounds were doing their bit, catching some enormous ones.

"Some are as big as possums, they're massive things," Butler told the Queensland Times.

Meanwhile, a native rat plague is chewing up parts of Telstra's network in outback Queensland, causing intermittent phone problems at Birdsville.

Diamantina Mayor Robbie Dare says the problem's partly due to rodents chewing cables near the exchange.

"We've been onto Telstra and they've said they've had rat infestation in the terminal, which I wouldn't doubt," he told the ABC.

"There is a hell of a rat plague which has been going (on) there for four or five months and they don't seem like they are letting up either."

A Telstra spokesman said technicians were working to replace the cables with a less tasty type.

"We figure if we can make it reasonably unpalatable, there'll be something more palatable they'll go and eat rather than our cable," he told the ABC.

• Bookmark this page
• Share this article
  •  
  • facebook
  • slashdot
  • digg
  • Reddit
  • stumbleupon
  • linkedin
  • twitter
• Got more on this story? Email Computerworld
• Follow Computerworld on twitter

• Share
  Share this article

  •  google+
  • facebookfacebook
  • slashdotslashdot
  • diggdigg
  • RedditReddit
  • stumbleuponstumbleupon
  • linkedinlinkedin
  • twittertwitter
• print
• email
• Bookmark