Men v. Mice

Banking and diving on orders from radio-equipped spotters on the ground, six planes flew pass after deadly pass over the lush, green terrain. Were they flushing out Viet Cong? Hardly. The enemy, darting around some 7,000 seaside acres of Monterey County, south of San Francisco, was Microtus californicus, a grey, nocturnal field mouse that measures no more than 4 in. from tip to quivering tail, yet threatens most of the nation's artichoke crop.

To the farmers in "the Artichoke Capital of the World," where 90% of the nation's supply is grown, the mice are a disaster. Blessed with sandy soil and cool, sun-shading ocean fog, in which the temperamental artichoke thrives, the country's annual crop normally exceeds 35,000 tons. But no longer. Downpours in the spring of 1967 left the normally quiescent beasties with little to do but hole up and breed; droughts this year then forced the hungry hordes of rodents onto the well-tended artichoke fields. Thus the Monterey farmers are losing up to 50% or more of their crops.

Some farmers have found as many as 30 mice nibbling at the roots and lower stems of one plant, which bears 40 to 50 artichokes. With an average of four mice per plant, the mouse population runs to well over 2,000 per acre. Fighting back against such hungry hordes, the farmers have resorted to aerial "bombing" of the fields with oats coated with a poison (zinc phosphide) that is strong enough to kill mice, too mild to hurt other wildlife. In one "Kill Mouse Day" last week, planes swooped down and dropped 46,000 lbs. of poisoned oats, which left countless casualties on the surface, others in their burrows.

"If we don't do anything about the mice now," explains Farmer Natale Bracco, whose 450 ravaged acres look like they have been trampled by a herd of clumsy cows, "this summer's loss would be peanuts." It surely is anything but peanuts to artichoke eaters: because of the shortage caused by the mouse raid, the wholesale price of artichokes recently jumped from $2.50 per 20-lb. box to $5.

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