Flowering bamboo in India is leading to a plague of rats that are overrunning villages, destroying crops and costing the government millions.

Bamboo flowers infrequently, and it can go decades without blooming. When it does flower though, the local bamboo rats go wild.

“Rodents are swarming all across Mizoram state, feasting on standing crops and leading to fears of a famine. The situation is indeed alarming,” James Lalsiamliana, an official in the state’s Rodent Control Program told AP.

The government has responded by increasing both the amount of rice given to villagers in the state and the wages they are paid (Times of India). It is also offering a bounty of two rupees ($) for each rat killed. Tails must be presented by anyone claiming their money and piles of the tails are now being burned after more than a million were handed over, says the BBC, which has a disturbing picture.

“The existing armies of rats are expected to survive till December and soon die as they will be left with nothing to eat,” according to Lalsiamliana.

There is an undated first person account of a plague of bamboo rats on Kangla Online.