Rabbits, Rabbits eveywhere..

knipex

I used to love rabbits, bugs bunny etc but now...... Now I just want them gone

I am looking out my window now and can see from here 8 full grown rabbits and hares and probably a dozen cute little baby rabbits.. Last week I spent 2 days with 2 tonne of top soil and a wheelbarrow filling holes and trenches in my lawn. This morning I was cutting my back lawn and the found a hole, no I mean a trench that was at least a foot deep that I swear was not there yesterday... Plus I have bare pathes all over the place..

They are even digging holes in my gravel yard..... My site is surrounded on two sides by an old hedgerow with whitethorn, ash, holly etc which I keep as tidy as possible but its riddled with burrows.. I keep the grass cut at least weekly and have cut and tidied any trees as much as possible to remove low level branches. I even got a bag of hair cuttings from a hardresser and spread it around the site but no good.

Its been like this for years but the damage they are doing this year is orders of magnitude worse than before.. My neighbour has a vegetable garden thats gone, nothing is left, (there is a plastic chicken wire fence between the two sites..)

Up until 2 years ago I had a great dane and a boxer who used to catch at least 4 or 5 rabbits a week this time of year but as they year went on and they got used to or bored with the amount of rabbits around the place they just gave up. My neighbour has two dogs that have gotten so used to the volume of rabbits that they just ignore then now...

I looked at putting down a rabbit fence but to do with plastic coated stuff, plus all the posts required would cost thousands and thats not including labour and digging the trench to bury the bottom of the fence. Plus a short 2 foot fence would look terrible and trip up the kids so I would need to make it al least 4 foot high which would make it even more expencive and very difficult to maintain the hedgerow..

I am seriously contemplating getting a shotgun and setting myself up on the roof of the shed with a sleeping bag and 2 days worth of food... I am even looking at smokebombing the burrows so I can find all the entrances and plugging them with concrete...

Any help, any advice, anything before I go on a rabbit killing rampage...

The Gride

Where I live the field next door is overrun with rabbits so much that the farmer had to get a guy in with ferrets. He set up a series of nets and put the ferrets in the burrows. The rabbits ran out in to the nets and got caught. The rabbits were mostly up one end of the field and you could plainly see how much grass that they has eaten compared to the other end of the same field.

The guy that caught them is a dealer and he told me that he puts them in a freezer until September when he sells them at a higher price to hotels.

Sunny Dayz

My parents had a problem of rabbits digging up the flower beds and getting the flower heads. My mum soaked old rags in white vinegar and laid them out in the garden and she claims this worked on them.

fiacha

Hi Knipex,

Get in touch with your local game shooting club (www.nargc.ie)
They will put you in touch with a local &responsible rabbiter who will manage the population for you. Plenty of options (rifle, ferret, live catch trap etc).

Personally, I'd look at them as another resource to harvest so I wouldn't try to eliminate them. Just control the numbers.

F.

Denis322

We used to have rabbits coming from our field out back into the garden everyday eating anything growing in pots, awful nuisance. Then we adopted another dog from dogs trust, a lurcher, and keep him in the field. Didn't get him in the hopes of clearing out the rabbits, got him cause he's a lovely friendly dog, but needless to say I can see why they are such sought afer dogs by certain people

Completely cleared out of rabbits.

pwurple

Yup, rabbitfest this year. We are plagued with he long eared rodents. Never had them before. Cute until they hav taken the bottom two feet off the hedge.

We filled all their burrows with vinegar soaked newspaper... When they were out. Chased them in next door with a borrowed terrier and stuck chicken wire on the perimeter. None back yet. It's beena week.

A few weeks of heat should knock them out.

zombiepaw

Try Grazers - Rabbit Deer & Pigeon Deterrent. not sure how effective it will be though

The Gride

Depending on what part of the country you are in I can get you the number for the guy I saw the farmer using. They catch them live and slaughter but do it in the best possible way. They are not cruel to the animals.

kylith

If you're happy with the idea of men with guns you could try if anyone on the hunting forum would come and thin their numbers a bit.

The Gride

kylith wrote: »

If you're happy with the idea of men with guns you could try if anyone on the hunting forum would come and thin their numbers a bit.

I think catching them is less cruel.

aaakev

The Gride wrote: »

I think catching them is less cruel.

What are you going to do with the when you catch them? Shooting is not cruel and is a very quick death same as catching them in nets and snapping their necks.

Op id be happy to shoot them if your near me or if not any number of lads in your area from the hunting forum would do it. Ya will get rid of the pests and im sure any one would share the meat so a bit of free meat to go with your veg

kylith

The Gride wrote: »

I think catching them is less cruel.

As aaakev says, what do you do with them when you catch them? You can't move them somewhere else because being taken out of their home territory would probably lead to them dying because of predators. No-one else is going to want them on their land because of the damage done. If they're caught they're going to be killed and, I would hope, eaten. Shooting them is probably the least stressful way of doing this.*

Since the OP has had dogs catching them in the past I don't think he'd be too concerned about them being shot.

*When I say least stressful I mean that one second the rabbit is eating grass and the next second it's dead. No waiting for hours in a pit trap and no being strangled in a snare.

knipex

Cheers Guys...

I was actually thinking about going to the local gun club and asking them but had a chat with the neighbour. Apparntly years ago they did just that, came in spent a day and 2 nights, got loads of rabbits and all was good for a month of so and then the numbers started to climb again.

Apparently I am wasting my time trying to eliminate them as the entire area is plauged with rabbits (the gun club are out regularly on rabbit hunts). All I can do is try and control the numbers. Perhaps one big initial clear out and then either get a couple of dogs to help control them or once a month or so try and get someone out from the gun club..

I have no problem shooting them. I think trapping is less humane (unless you are checking the traps every hour).

I was joking about getting a gun but the more I think about it the more sense it makes to just make the jump and get a shotgun... Im not sure if I would get a lisence for vermin control but I will have a chat with the gunclub.