Did you experience the mouse plague that raged around our region between spring 2020 to late winter 2021?

Do you remember how it affected you, your household, your workplace, your business or your farm?

Now is your chance to tell someone who cares - and perhaps help guide the government response to the next plague.

The CSIRO says that mice cause huge impacts on rural communities, especially during mouse plagues, but that "the actual magnitude of these economic and social burdens is based on data collected some 30 years ago from the mouse plague in 1993."

A new study hopes to change all that and an online survey has been launched to capture feedback from people living in areas of the state that were most affected.

"The mouse plague that affected much of NSW presents an ideal opportunity to not only repeat the survey conducted in the 1993 mouse plague but also expand the scope of the study to include elements of social impacts to rural communities," a CSIRO spokesperson said.

"In addition to economic and disease impacts, mouse plagues can cause severe psychological distress for people living through them."

Who remembers this? January 2021

Dr Peter Brown is Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader for Rodent Management with the CSIRO.

"There's been a lot of changes in things like land management practices and pest treatments since 1993," he said.

"This is a chance to find out what the impacts are now."

He says the survey is divided into different sections to collect information on different locations.

"We're trying to get a better understanding of the impacts so we've divided it into livestock, cropping or mixed farming.

"There's a whole set of questions on the impacts on houses and rural businesses - there's a whole bunch of things people can identify."

"We want to know what they faced, what they tried to do about it, and how the stress and the financial costs impacted them."

"There's a whole range of questions from different angles ... so hopefully it's a well-designed survey that will help us get a real handle on the impacts on people living through these plagues."

When you open the door to your truck in March 2021... IMAGE: Rob Sinclair

The survey is open until early December 2023 and will take roughly 25 minutes to complete. It is only available online.

The research team will be reporting back to the Department of Regional NSW, who are funding the project.

Documents and recommendations will cover off on both scientific and other aspects of the plague.

"We hope to report on what happened, what we can learn from that and do better next time," Dr Brown said.

"The more people who do the survey the better."

Click here to complete the survey.