Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi all,
at our site we have been invaded with rabbits that just eat everything (except the weeds) as soon as you plant out. I also suspect that the rats are eating my brassicas as they have been fully covered, and slug pelleted and they are still being eaten.

We are all at out wits end, fencing is the obvious solution but it is very expensive if you have a full plot.

I have tried laying canes over the ground, that did not work, I have a battery operated deterrent, no good,I also have a plastic falcon, this is OK for the pigeons.

Any help or suggestions would be gratefully welcome,

Thanks

Tracie

Hi Tracie. When we first got our allotment, we had the same problem.
We used chicken wire, cut to the length of the row and folded in the middle lengthwise to make a tent.../\ fashion and put it over the row of plants, staked down with canes. This worked very well and kept everything off the plants. We eventually managed to get it all fenced off and haven't had any problems since.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Cheers.

Thanks for your reply. I have some chicken wire around and have used some of it. I have just ordered some Grazer, which you spray on and is supposed to deter the rabits and other little terrors.

I will report back and let you know if it has worked,

Regards Tracie

After 7 years of rabbit damage, I have just bitten the bullet and wired in my whole allotment - not cheap but hopefully worth it if I can keep my veg!

We have our whole allotment surrounded by wire as well, not just dug in, but we also hang some old wire netting over the netting fence because one year I watched a rabbit climbing the wire just like a cat and then jumping down the other side. So be warned.

Wire netting is expensive but ours has lasted now for more than 20 years, just a few posts needed replacing.

HI,

thanks for your reply. I have been to the allotments today and brassicas that have been netted over on other plots have been eaten, with the tell tail rabbit poo being left, it really is a nightmare.

My chrysanthemums which I nursed through the winter had only been in overnight and they were gone the next morning.

My onion tops have been eaten, as have the shallots. I am not alone.

I have today been and measured up and I think I will need 120mts of netting plus stakes which is a large expense. We are all at our with end


Tracie

Dear Tracie, do you know anyone that does any ferreting, this may sound cruel but it does keep the numbers down, and the meat will not go to waste.

we have had somebody up with ferrets, but i do not think they were hungry that day because they caught nothing!!

It sounds as if they were ferreting the wrong burrows, to me.

Ferrets wont (read don't normally or shouldn't) kill the rabbits, merely flush them out of the warrens into the nets. Possibly the warrens weren't in use and the rabbits are coming in from outside.

Rabbits are a serious pest, like badgers, foxes, squirrels, rats, and deer there are just too many of them since the countryman's way of control have been frowned upon and surpressed by the 'bunnyhuggers'.

Today it is thought of as chic to own a ferret or a running dog as a pet rather than what they were intended for.

A powerful air rifle (12ftlb) with a silencer may aid the control measures.

Barney

Our rabbit population has been reduced drastically recently by, we think, myxomatosis or possibly another virus. Shooting didn't do much good in the past because when one rabbit was shot, all the others disappeared for the next half hour, so the chap with the gun was lucky to get two or three rabbits in one evening, if that.

A powerful air rifle (12ftlb) with a silencer may aid the control measures.

Silence is the key to shooting rabbits.

Barney