My hobby of propagating and growing tree and shrub saplings for planting around our farm has blossomed into a small business of supplying a local landscaping nursery with some rather rare and hard to obtain specimens. I have several thousand seedlings and saplings growing now, but have started to have serious problems with rabbits. Fencing worked for a while in the seedling beds, but in winter the snowdrifts that formed allowed them to hop over the fences. I don't have the time to hunt them either. My question is, is it possible to poison rabbits in the same manner as you would poison rats or mice? I have to check the local game laws first to make sure I'm not breaking any laws, but if it is legal, what would work? If it is not legal, I will have to find something else to gain control over their population. Thanks.

Where do you live? There are probably a hundred guys on here that would love to help you with your problem.

Sounds like some heavy ScopeLite (nite hunting) action needed here!

I bet the local archers would kiss your backside at high noon on Main St. for the chance to help you out.lol Fred

Carve yourself a round tuit,Then pick up a s.s.10/22 and a box or two of stingers,and keep them in your truck.Rabbits in a nursery situation can approach shooting gallery status.Get out there at the crack of dawn,and start shooting,and unlike other rodents,the rabbits will sit there and wait for you to whack them.No joke,,I pulled into the container yard to see no less than 25 gnawed micro irrigation lines spurting water in the air one morning,and saw 3 rabbits 50 yds away watching the water works display.I shot the first one and the other two sat there and watched the first one flop and die,shot the 2nd one and the last one still sat there and looked at the first two,the third one took what seemed like a full minute to realise it no longer had a brain in it's skull,I almost pulled a second shot on it.If a .22lr is too much gas for your situation a beeman R-9,or better yet a talon ss .22cal pcp air rifle would do you well.They're also suckers for live traps and apples,,,,Good luck!

Get yourself a Jack Russell Terrier. They are fiercely territorial and will kill rabbits or rodents just for fun, and they are RELENTLESS. My little 1/2 acre lot is "critter free" as my lil' pooch will kill anything that invades her territory. We had a groundhog that moved in while we were on vacation last year, when we got home she went right down the hole after him. I thought I was going to have to dig up the yard to get her out, but she eventually came out. The groundhog didn't.

[ 04-18-2003, 18:09: Message edited by: Pa.Frank ]

If you choose to go the poison route, just remember that anything eating the carcasses will likely also become poisoned (dogs/cats, hawks, fox, etc.)

The beagle clubs up here in NY use box traps with apples to live trap rabbits for transfer to their penned training areas. They work pretty good and can be made with scrap wood.

Other options include putting up hawk perches - once the hawks have a good place to watch the rabbits will find other places to snack.

Good luck.

I dont think poisen is a good idea,because as someone also posted anything that eats the carcass will also be poisend.and it would be a big bummer if a protected animal came to its death because of it.have we forgoten the cat my neighbor got a cat about 2 years ago and we havent seen a rabbit in our garden since.but the jack russel terrier will do the job also.

I don't like using poison, because it's so easy to kill other animals than the one you are after.

Same can might be said with using dogs and cats, but I still think this better. Try getting a couple of good healty, big cats that are from an "outside cat" stock. Or get a Jack Russel.

I think this will be based on what you personly prefere. Cats are easier to care for and they breed like hell. Might give you a cat problem, but cats don't eat plants.

Have you considered traps or snares? It might be a lot of work

Johan

I hope not to ramble on with your problem. I've fought the same thing by growing alfalfa in the remote areas of Nevada. Nothing short of a plague will cause the rabbits to stay away from a better feed source. Have you thought of a buffer zone of feeds for the rabbits that fills their bellys and keeps them from eating your cash crop? I've seen dogs get so tired of killing rabbits they lay down and pant, while the rabbits go on feeding. Just a thought; personally I like a 22-250 and a good bench. It's not effective but a lot of fun for awhile.

Or just use a spray on repellent on the saplings. This is used by the more enlightened foresters to repel hares foraging on the top of the snow and eating the sapling tops. It is cheap, easy and doesn't kill or maim everything in the biosphere as poisons, such as 1080 do ( used by the ton, literally, in, so called, clean green New Zealand). Down the line, you may downgrade the value of your property by using poisons which may have a very long life in the soil.

I'd avoid PX. As someone already pointed out, you'll end up killing the minor predators and scanvangers too.

Life is short, try to make time to hunt them. Or look for someone who has the time.

Live traps will work, but are tedious.

A Jack Russell Terrier will be death on anything in it's area, as already pointed out to you.

Electric fencing works, but not in the winter if you have serious snow.