Sporting Gun

Garden party

Ed Cook looks at some measures to take if you find some unwelcome guests on your property

-

Around this time of year we have plenty of garden jobs rolling in. These are usually as a result of rabbits digging in the lawn, destroying plants, or both. A job may also pop up where the owner of a property is worried that rabbits may cause subsidence issues. We know rabbits are prolific breeders and what is a small population in the winter can soon proliferat­e to what seems like a plague to a property owner come the summer. It does not take many rabbits to wreck a garden.

So what can be done to combat such a problem? The best way forward is always to rabbit-proof the perimeter properly with 18-gauge rabbit netting buried to a depth to suit the soil type. This means gates need to be rabbit-proofed and kept shut. Such rabbitproo­fing needs to be perfect; a gap much bigger than 1½in will allow a baby rabbit in and then problems start. A garden is either rabbit-proof or not; there is no such thing as nearly rabbit-proof. Not everyone has the budget for fencing, but for a long-term effective measure, it is the best way.

Once a garden is rabbit-proofed, the next step is to remove those inside the garden. This is straightfo­rward enough, depending on the size of the plot and the amount of vegetation. The way we do it is to use a dog to locate rabbits, which are normally ferreted out from where they are hiding. Purse-nets or long-nets are used to catch bolted rabbits, often with the help of a lurcher. The vegetation is thick at the moment and combined with the heat, which the ferrets and dogs can struggle with, it is possible to miss the odd rabbit. This will most likely mean another visit to double-check a site and, if necessary, trapping with cages or employing an airgun, providing it is safe.

If this is done properly, all the rabbits afflicting a particular garden should have been eradicated from it. However, things will only stay that way if the fence remains in good order, or a gate is kept closed.

If fencing isn’t an option, then either ferreting or shooting, once the day has cooled down, will provide results. Shooting after dark is often less productive during the summer months, which is down to rabbits filling their bellies before nightfall. Cage trapping can be helpful to control rabbits as an ongoing method but people become bored of setting and leaving them in the recesses of their garden. Be warned, the alternativ­e to a fence will most likely mean that as soon as you remove a rabbit another one will replace it almost instantly. This will, of course, depend on the overall numbers in a location; if these are high you can be assured that they will keep on coming.

“A small population can soon proliferat­e to what seems like a plague come the summer”

 ??  ?? Long-nets are set up to catch bolted rabbits fleeing from a lurcher
Long-nets are set up to catch bolted rabbits fleeing from a lurcher
 ??  ?? Ferrets are used to drive rabbits from their hiding place
Ferrets are used to drive rabbits from their hiding place

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom