Rabbits, rabbits & more *?@## rabbits

[zebedee]

I know they are a perrenial pest, and some people think they is cute(?) but I hate the cauliflower nibbling, cabbage wrecking beasties. I have thought about buying a gun, but I think the local council would object to a 20mm chain gun at the end of my plot. Wouldn't they?

Seriously though, any suggestions (clean or otherwise!!!!!). Also what is the legal standing on rabbit control?

Many thanks

[SueA]

Hi Zebedee, I fall into the 'find rabbits cute' category so I don't advocate shooting them although I think they are classed as vermin & you are allowed to. The only method I've heard of that works is fencing your plot with wire netting which is buried a couple of feet underground with a ledge of it bending out from the base underground , if you see what I mean. The rabbits try to burrow under it but come up against the netting & can't get through. You have to make sure there are no gaps in it though & leave a plank or something leaning up against the inside so that if one manages to get in it can climb out otherwise it will eat everything in there!(Got that from Bob Flowerdew's book).Or you could put rings of wire netting round each plant if there weren't many, or keep a ferret or borrow one & let it spray around your plot as rabbits won't go anywhere near them!

[zebedee]

Thanks, SueA, never heard that about the ferrets before, but it do make sense. I agree about the problem with shooting! Anyway, Army surplus covers most things but NOT, I feel, a chain gun. I suppose 4000 rounds a minute is a bit excessive!

Thanks for the tip, though.

Zeb

[sewer rat]

You can shoot wabbits any time you want. There are air rifles advertised in some gardening magazines that are powerful enough to do the job - best in late evenings or early mornings, and use a scope.
Then it's just a case of kill and eat !

[Alice]

Sorry you have the rabbit problem Zebedee. I think we had all this conversation on the Vine before. I try to be as eco friendly as possible and don't go in for the kill it methods,BUT, rabbits! Now there's a problem. I would make some pastry and prepare to make a pie.

[User Removed]

I will get shouted at for this but here goes, we had rabbits but not for long, a shotgun generally gets rid of them.

[CarolineSonning]

Zebedee, if you go the netting route I have found that if you lift the grass around the area to be protected and lay the netting 1 to 2 feet out along the ground, recover with the grass then bend netting upward and stake as usual, it's just as effective and far less effort than digging down 2 feet .

[soobeth]

You could catch them and relase them under nice circumstances 1/2 mile away and hopw they don't come back!!

[SueA]

Gone off you now Adam, I read your post before it was edited! I expect it off Rat as he would shoot anything big enough to get a bullet/pellet in & think I am in the minority on this site amongst you country folk in that I am a softy, semi-veggie (still eat fish!) & feel bad even about squashing vine weevils!
As Soobeth says you can get live traps & release the rabbits elsewhere but I think it would have to be a fair distance & you are supposed to get permission off the landowner.

[roitelet]

Get some cats. I have 3 only one of them is a pussy and the other two are very good at seeing off rabbits and are also self feeding as they catch the young ones and therefore reduce the problem! My garden is surounded by fields and there are loads of rabbits about, the other day I saw a large rabbit in the garden. Out went the cat (killer variety) and out went the rabbit too!

[sewer rat]

Find a nice man with some ferrets - that'll do the job too

[JennieAtkinson]

When you are surrounded by fields and in one field alone you can count 27 rabbits, its a bit difficult to be nice ........... and also find somewhere far away to put them as everywhere else is the same or even worse.

This is our worst year for rabbits EVER! Although my chicken wire, held down by massive stones is keeping them out of my veg garden, but unfortunately not the flower garden.

[Snadger]

Think I'd rather put up with rabbits as have cats in the garden!

[zebedee]

I do have to agree about freakin cats! I am quite an animal lover, and cannot possibly see the sense or purpose behind cruelty, but we don't have cats, so why do the B*****S keep poopin in my garden????

[Squirrel]

The fact that you havn't got cats is the reason they poop in your garden!