Rabbits galore

I am plagued by hordes of rabbits. They eat everything in sight, especially tender shoots and newly planted stuff. When they get desperate they will even eat my Red Apple iceplant.

Within the city limits I cannot use a firearm. Would an air rifle be powerful enough to kill them? Wonder where they go to die. Will I end up with Rabbit carcasses all over my garden?

Trapping them sounds like a lot of trouble, especially with the high cost of gasoline.

Any other drastic remedies?

And no, I do not want to cook them. During the depression my wife and I collected road-kill rabbits and cooked them for supper. During the war (WW II Germany) we bred them by the hundreds in our backyard and turned them into sausage. Fortunately we no longer have a need for such desperate measures.

Reply to
Walter R.
Loading thread data ...

How about a couple of dogs to scare them away?

Reply to
LouB

We have a couple Beagles. No wabbits in our backyard.

Reply to
gilb

Yes- I've dispatched dozens of rabbits and hundreds of squirrels with a break action pellet rifle from Walmart. [for that matter- the

*right* air rifle can kill a buffalo] Something that shoots around 750-1000 fps is lethal. The Storm XT that I bought was less than $100. I tossed the scope and regularly pick squirrels out of tree-tops with head shots. Be fore-warned, it is probably considered a firearm in most jurisdictions.

Shot in the head, they drop in place.

No gas- just a 5 gallon bucket of water. Relocating is probably less legal than killing them out of season.

i've actually had some success with 'liquid fence' -

formatting link
a try while you're reducing the population.

-snip-

I eat all my rabbits, squirrels and vermin. But first I compost them and convert them to tomatoes.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

WTF don't you have a fence?

Reply to
AZ Nomad

"Walter R." wrote in news:h1u1ts$grt$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

Sell and move away.

Reply to
Stepfann King

Might as well build a hot-house. Rabbits can breed faster than you can kill them.

Reply to
HeyBub

Everyone on the eastern side of the US, including me, is seeing more rabbits this year than in years past. Mother Nature has given them something special in their lives - probably Al Gore & global warming.

Reply to
Red

Red wrote: ...

I suspect "everyone" is perhaps an exaggeration, but... :)

My supposition would be the breaking of the worst of the moderate to severe drought conditions across a great portion of the country east of the Mississippi has had more to do with it than anything--they, like all wild critters breed to the available conditions. We were across to Raleigh a month or so ago and it's greenest from Arkansas all the way east I've seen in many a year -- since a year or so after we moved, in fact, I'd say...

While not such a major effect back there, out here the amount of widespread hail during and shortly after nesting season has a major impact on the yearly quail/pheasant populations and somewhat lesser effect on rabbits, etc., but certainly not inconsequential.

--

Reply to
dpb

However many T-section fence posts and rolls of chicken wire you need to enclose the garden. Rabbits can't climb fences, but they can dig, so cut a slit in the sod to hold the bottom six inches or so. The shine on the chicken wire goes away pretty fast, and you can barely see the fence.

-- aem sends...

Reply to
aemeijers

"Walter R." wrote in news:h1u1ts$grt$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

you can buy 9mm air rifles that definitely kill them. your ordinary BB gun will not.

carcasses will attract other animals.

what's gasoline got to do with rabbit traps???

somebody else might. They taste good fried or in a stew.

it's not "desperation",it's practicality and not being wasteful. Think of it as "recycling".

Reply to
Jim Yanik

Might sound silly but I just got a 2 foot rubber snake from wal-mart and was overwhelmed at how it worked for my squirrel problem.

I have a container garden on the deck (about 14 feet up) and had squirrels eating my tomatoes as soon as they'd ripen. Shot 8 or 10 of them and figured I'd run out of ammo long before I would run out of rodents.

Put this snake on the railing of the deck and watched a critter approach from the other side. He rounded the corner, saw the snake, and spastically jumped over the side (14 feet up).

Just ate my first few ripe ones... 8^)

Should work for rabbits also.

Reply to
BRUCE

If I use traps, I have to transport the trapped rabbits several miles, by car presumable, thus the cost of gasoline

Reply to
Walter R.

Sounds good. All I have to do is find a big rubber snake, like a python.

Reply to
Walter R.

WTF do you think a fence will stop a burrowing animal for more than, oh, maybe a minute and a half?

Reply to
Doug Miller

[...]

If you're anywhere near Indianapolis, I will be happy to take all the fresh rabbit carcasses you can give me. I think rabbit is very tasty. We used to live in a rural area about 15 miles outside Indianapolis, and I hunted our property regularly. Haven't had a taste of wild rabbit since we moved to the city ten years ago, and I miss it.

Reply to
Doug Miller

My father in law put chicken wire around the bottom of his fence to keep them out. When this didnt work he cut openings in the chicken wire with traps behind the openings. I ate rabbit stew at his house more than a few times.

Jimmie

Reply to
JIMMIE

We have a lot this year. We put wire around the garden and planted areas, and we just stand back and watch them. The grandkids get a kick out of them, too. We go to the local grocers and get boxes of lettuce and stuff for them to munch. Controlling rabbits is just like trying to control dust.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

fencing

Reply to
SteveB

snipped-for-privacy@milmac.com (Doug Miller) wrote in news:fQA0m.1515$ snipped-for-privacy@nlpi064.nbdc.sbc.com:

You need a special rabbit proof fence. Worked well for us back when we had a garden. Sounds like they're all over your yard,tho.

It's weird. The rabbits and squirrels have not been so plentiful this year. (NY). We have a lot of screaming crows this year,tho. They scare everything away.

Reply to
Marina

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.