Mickey's cousins unwelcome guests in Florida

Orlando (Fla), Dec 31: Central Florida, the home of Walt DisneyWorld, is typically invaded by visitors wearing mouse ears this time ofyear.

But while Mickey Mouse's fans may be welcome, the residents ofApopka, a tiny town 40 km north of the theme park, are disgusted by thehundreds of thousands of real mice that have overrun their community.

The thumb-sized house mice have chased people out of homes andoffices for the second time since 1999, said David Overfield,environmental administrator for the Orange County Health Department.

''It's pretty nasty,'' said Overfield, whose job includes trying to determine the cause of the infestation.

His current theory says an overabundant crop of acorns may have encouraged well-fed mice to mate -- and mate some more.

Dee Sincavage, owner of one of the many ornamental plant nurseriesfor which Apopka is known, is hard pressed to pick her worst mouseexperience since the infestation began last summer by chasing kids outof Camp Wewa.

Was it the morning she walked into her nursery and felt thesquish-crunch of fresh mouse carcasses underfoot? The night mice chewedthrough plumbing, flooding her office and soaking her business records?Or just the daily ordeal of drowning and disposing of dozens of livemice caught in traps overnight? ''Gosh, they are all over the place,''Sincavage said. ''The stench is bad and the gnats around here areterrible from all the dead carcasses. It's just disgusting.''Counter-measures by health authorities, who have established a specialrodent command center, so far have been only partly successful. Besidesdispensing traps and bait, authorities launched an air assault byreleasing 17 barn and screech owls expected to feast on dozens of micea day. News of the buffet apparently traveled far, luring many morebirds of prey to the area.

''We have more raptors than we've ever seen before,'' Overfieldsaid. ''They just line up along the telephone wires and dive down andpick stuff off.'' So far, Overfield said, the infestation has notsickened anyone, although the smell of all the rotting carcassestrapped in the walls of many homes and businesses is certainlynauseating.

Overfield cautioned residents to be vigilant about inspectingtheir food supplies since the mice can eat through standard plasticstorage containers.

Although Orange County leaders recently allocated another 200,000dollars to continue the rodent battle, no one knows when or how theinfestation might end.

Reuters