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#1
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Rabbits
On 13/03/2015 7:54 AM, Another John wrote:
OK OK I know the most popular answer will be: "You can't" but nonetheless: how do we control rabbit ingress? My new employer has about an acre of garden, in which we're about to create a new perennial border. The garden is out in the country, and is bordered on one side by the road and the old (gappy) hedge, and on the other sides by a standard post and rail fence. Across the fence is a big field (10 acres?) which occasionally has a few sheep in, but is mainly used for hay (I think). Rabbits aren't a big pest yet in this garden, but they are around. Is it possible to dissuade them? I was thinking of nailing chicken wire around the entire perimeter. I know that they burrow, but I figured maybe they only do that when there's a vegetable garden to be got at. Chicken wire works well, doesn't need to be very high but does need to be buried or held fast to some form of solid barrier to be effective. I use chicken wire that is only 1 ft/30 cm tall around some of my veg beds and that butts up to old timber railway sleepers and it is held in place with bamboo stakes shoved deep into the soil every 9 inches or so right round the internal edge of the wire. That height is enough to keep them out of my veg beds. Rabbits also do not like blood and bone meal but that is only temporary. The little stinkers will have a go at anything green. I've just been out inspecting my bulbs coming up and they have nibbled at my Cuban lillies and taken the tops out of many of my succulents and would have eaten all of my dahlias to the roots if I hadn't surrounded them with cages. They don't seem to like Peonies or irises. 1080 poison is very effective but you have to feed them the unbaited carrots for a while to get them feeding on it and then you hit the carrots with the poison. We don't using 1080 though because it's deadly to mammals such as dogs. A .22 also works well. Ripping their burrows with a deep ripper on a tractor also works and so does fumigating their burrows by shoving a hose onto the end of an exhaust pipe of a leaded petrol car and shoving the end down the burrow and then closing over all holes with dirt and leaving the car running for a while. These days that means you have to find an old car where lead is added to modern fuel. |
#2
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Rabbits
On 15/03/2015 07:26, Fran Farmer wrote:
so does fumigating their burrows by shoving a hose onto the end of an exhaust pipe of a leaded petrol car and shoving the end down the burrow and then closing over all holes with dirt and leaving the car running for a while. These days that means you have to find an old car where lead is added to modern fuel It's not the lead, it's the carbon monoxide that does for them. Anything without a catalytic converter will do - which includes old diesels as well as petrol. A lawnmowers would probably do - although you'd have to run a lawnmower an awfully long time to get much exhaust. Andy |
#3
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Rabbits
On 17/03/2015 8:46 AM, Vir Campestris wrote:
On 15/03/2015 07:26, Fran Farmer wrote: so does fumigating their burrows by shoving a hose onto the end of an exhaust pipe of a leaded petrol car and shoving the end down the burrow and then closing over all holes with dirt and leaving the car running for a while. These days that means you have to find an old car where lead is added to modern fuel It's not the lead, it's the carbon monoxide that does for them. Anything without a catalytic converter will do - which includes old diesels as well as petrol. A lawnmowers would probably do - although you'd have to run a lawnmower an awfully long time to get much exhaust. Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that it was the lead in the fuel - I was trying to say that older petrol engined cars are the ones to use. Diesel engined vehicles are, for some reason,deemed to be 'useless'. I don't know whether that is just an old farmer's tale but it's always older petrol cars that have the lead to added to the fuel that are used regardless of any diesel powered vehicles that might be on hand. I've used the old petrol car exhaust trick on rat burrows round my chook pens using my 1952 Morris Minor. That worked for quite a while. I'm girding my loins to do a rabbit burrow on the edge of our 'lawn' where the blasted bunnies have dug a warren between 2 rocks. There are a few fox poos round the entrance and at least 8 rabbits have been shot at dusk on the 'lawn'. But it needs even more action taken. I'm thinking an old Riley might be the way to go this time round. |
#4
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Rabbits
In article ,
Fran Farmer wrote: On 17/03/2015 8:46 AM, Vir Campestris wrote: On 15/03/2015 07:26, Fran Farmer wrote: so does fumigating their burrows by shoving a hose onto the end of an exhaust pipe of a leaded petrol car and shoving the end down the burrow and then closing over all holes with dirt and leaving the car running for a while. These days that means you have to find an old car where lead is added to modern fuel It's not the lead, it's the carbon monoxide that does for them. Anything without a catalytic converter will do - which includes old diesels as well as petrol. A lawnmowers would probably do - although you'd have to run a lawnmower an awfully long time to get much exhaust. Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that it was the lead in the fuel - I was trying to say that older petrol engined cars are the ones to use. Diesel engined vehicles are, for some reason,deemed to be 'useless'. I don't know whether that is just an old farmer's tale but it's always older petrol cars that have the lead to added to the fuel that are used regardless of any diesel powered vehicles that might be on hand. I've used the old petrol car exhaust trick on rat burrows round my chook pens using my 1952 Morris Minor. That worked for quite a while. I'm girding my loins to do a rabbit burrow on the edge of our 'lawn' where the blasted bunnies have dug a warren between 2 rocks. There are a few fox poos round the entrance and at least 8 rabbits have been shot at dusk on the 'lawn'. But it needs even more action taken. I'm thinking an old Riley might be the way to go this time round. Your garage sounds at least as interesting as your garden :-) J. |
#5
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Rabbits
On 17/03/2015 09:25, Another John wrote:
In article , Fran Farmer wrote: On 17/03/2015 8:46 AM, Vir Campestris wrote: On 15/03/2015 07:26, Fran Farmer wrote: so does fumigating their burrows by shoving a hose onto the end of an exhaust pipe of a leaded petrol car and shoving the end down the burrow and then closing over all holes with dirt and leaving the car running for a while. These days that means you have to find an old car where lead is added to modern fuel It's not the lead, it's the carbon monoxide that does for them. Anything without a catalytic converter will do - which includes old diesels as well as petrol. A lawnmowers would probably do - although you'd have to run a lawnmower an awfully long time to get much exhaust. Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that it was the lead in the fuel - I was trying to say that older petrol engined cars are the ones to use. Diesel engined vehicles are, for some reason,deemed to be 'useless'. I don't know whether that is just an old farmer's tale but it's always older petrol cars that have the lead to added to the fuel that are used regardless of any diesel powered vehicles that might be on hand. I've used the old petrol car exhaust trick on rat burrows round my chook pens using my 1952 Morris Minor. That worked for quite a while. I'm girding my loins to do a rabbit burrow on the edge of our 'lawn' where the blasted bunnies have dug a warren between 2 rocks. There are a few fox poos round the entrance and at least 8 rabbits have been shot at dusk on the 'lawn'. But it needs even more action taken. I'm thinking an old Riley might be the way to go this time round. Your garage sounds at least as interesting as your garden :-) J. You need a man with a ferret. |
#6
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Rabbits
On 17/03/2015 8:25 PM, Another John wrote:
In article , Fran Farmer wrote: On 17/03/2015 8:46 AM, Vir Campestris wrote: On 15/03/2015 07:26, Fran Farmer wrote: so does fumigating their burrows by shoving a hose onto the end of an exhaust pipe of a leaded petrol car and shoving the end down the burrow and then closing over all holes with dirt and leaving the car running for a while. These days that means you have to find an old car where lead is added to modern fuel It's not the lead, it's the carbon monoxide that does for them. Anything without a catalytic converter will do - which includes old diesels as well as petrol. A lawnmowers would probably do - although you'd have to run a lawnmower an awfully long time to get much exhaust. Sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that it was the lead in the fuel - I was trying to say that older petrol engined cars are the ones to use. Diesel engined vehicles are, for some reason,deemed to be 'useless'. I don't know whether that is just an old farmer's tale but it's always older petrol cars that have the lead to added to the fuel that are used regardless of any diesel powered vehicles that might be on hand. I've used the old petrol car exhaust trick on rat burrows round my chook pens using my 1952 Morris Minor. That worked for quite a while. I'm girding my loins to do a rabbit burrow on the edge of our 'lawn' where the blasted bunnies have dug a warren between 2 rocks. There are a few fox poos round the entrance and at least 8 rabbits have been shot at dusk on the 'lawn'. But it needs even more action taken. I'm thinking an old Riley might be the way to go this time round. Your garage sounds at least as interesting as your garden :-) LOL. His garage is very interesting. My only involvement is to lift or hold or jump in when told to do so or to say "Really dear? How dreadful/nice". |
#7
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Rabbits
"Fran Farmer" wrote in message ... On 17/03/2015 8:46 AM, Vir Campestris wrote: On 15/03/2015 07:26, Fran Farmer wrote: so does fumigating their burrows by shoving a hose onto the end of an exhaust pipe of a leaded petrol car and shoving the end down the burrow and then closing over all holes with dirt and leaving the car running for a while. These days that means you have to find an old car where lead is added to modern fuel I do rats like that. We use a hedgecutter engine to smoke them out into the jaws of the terriers. It's so much kinder than poisoning. Either the rats are dead immediately or they get away. I stopped poisoning ages ago after i kept find rats dying slowly and had to kill them myself. So I have the dogs in. they re very good. My cat has to stay inside otherwise he'd be an ex-cat. So they the terriers sweep through. No rat will live. Although once a very big rat here took off half a terrier's nose but she didn't mind. She killed it anyway. It was under tree roots and she dug it out, and it gripped on to her face. Boyfie says no about big rats. He does the little ones. Big ones with chisel teeth, absolutely not. |
#8
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Rabbits
"Vir Campestris" wrote in message o.uk... On 15/03/2015 07:26, Fran Farmer wrote: so does fumigating their burrows by shoving a hose onto the end of an exhaust pipe of a leaded petrol car and shoving the end down the burrow and then closing over all holes with dirt and leaving the car running for a while. These days that means you have to find an old car where lead is added to modern fuel It's not the lead, it's the carbon monoxide that does for them. Anything without a catalytic converter will do - which includes old diesels as well as petrol. A lawnmowers would probably do - although you'd have to run a lawnmower an awfully long time to get much exhaust. Andy I do this for rats, we run a lawnmower engine under the chicken huts and the rats run out into the jaws of the terriers. Snap. Into ratty heaven instantly, much better thsn poison which I refuse to use since I had to kill one dying slowly once when I used it. Never again. The poor thing took ages to die until I firmed up and bashed it on the head with a brick - which was difficult. Terriers are best with rats, they either kill them immediately or they get away for another time to meet the terriers again. A big rat almost bit the nose off one of the terriers. Boyfie kills the small rats. He is not brave enough to tackle the big ones with huge brown chisel teeth. He needs the terriers for that. |
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