Rabbits a Serious Pest Problem in UK

Rabbits remain a serious pest problem in rural and urban areas. A wide range of rabbit control options are available.

Problems with Rabbits

Rabbits are one of Britain’s most widespread and destructive agricultural pests. The impact of rabbits to plants that are native as well as damage to food stocks, grazing land and damage to animals like horses and sheep.  They are threaten native mammals through direct competition for food and shelter. Overgrazing can remove plant cover and can contributes to soil erosion..

Rabbit facts & figures

• Rabbits were introduced by the Normans in the 12th century to provide meat and fur.

• They can live up to 9yrs but in the wild they rarely live longer than 12 months.

• Rabbits become sexually mature at four months and breed quickly. On average doe’s (female rabbit) will produce 20 young per year with a gestation period of four weeks.

• Adults rarely travel no further than 200 meters from the main burrow.

• An adult can eat up to 500 grams per day of food.

• The myxomatosis epidemic began in 1954 and almost wiped out the entire population. However, rabbits are now increasingly resistant to this viral disease.

Rabbit Pest Control Techniques

Long term rabbit population management should aim to reduce levels at which their damage is reduced to an acceptable level.
The most effective time to control program is between November and March because:
The best results are achieved if infested adjoining land is treated at the same time in co-operation exercises. Rabbits do not respect boundaries.
Habitat management plays a vital part of a successful control program. Scrub and ground cover may need to be thinned to allow access to burrows – and is essential when gassing takes place.

Gassing

Gassing is regarded as the best control method when burrows are accessible and can offer up to 80% control. For best results rabbits are driven to ground before gassing and every entrance to the warren system is found and treated.
G.S Pest Control take care to ensure that no badger sets or fox earths as situated near the warrens being treated.
Phostoxin and Talunex are the products that are available. Both are extremely toxic to rabbits.

Fencing and Wire Netting

Fencing is particularly useful when other techniques are impractical, or when complete exclusion is the aim. Rabbit-proof netting fences are often initially used in specific circumstances such as the protection of relatively small, high-value enterprises, rather than extensive grazing enterprises.
There are two main designs, with netting buried 150 mm in the ground, and; with netting bent at the base to lie on the ground in the direction of approaching rabbits.
Rabbit proof fencing is a one-off operation and should last for up to 20 years where maintenance is adequate.
Netting fencing may be judged to be a cost effective long term control method when compared with current costs of ongoing rabbit control works in residential areas. It may be the only effective rabbit control option to contain rabbits in difficult terrain or in situations where rabbit control by other techniques is difficult.
Controlling the movement of rabbits with netted fencing is the first stage of making a property rabbit-free.

Spring Trapping

Another very productive method of rabbit control is the use of spring traps. In some situations it can be the best method of control. The most common spring trap used is the Mk6 Fenn trap. The one drawback is that it can be very labour intensive.

Baited cage traps

This method of rabbit control is best used mainly on small garden jobs. Here galvanised wire-mesh cages are baited with carrots set in open vegetation away from the burrows and are checked twice a day – morning and late afternoon. Captured rabbits are then dispatched humanly. It offers the advantage that access to burrows is not required and that if non-target species can be released unharmed.

Shooting

Rabbit control using air rifle or .22 rimfire is highly affective method of clearing large numbers of rabbits. However single shooting operations are not particularly effective and reduce rabbit numbers by only 30%. The shooting method is only used as an addition to more effective methods, or to remove problem individuals that cannot be disposed of by other means.

Drop Box traps

Drop box traps are very useful on long term contract to control rabbits. Set on well used runs through rabbit proof fencing, they can prove deadly at catching rabbits. They are only used in long term control programs because they are permanently set in the ground. The traps themselves are made of galvanised metal and consist of a holding chamber (sunk into the ground) with a tunnel running across the top that contains a counter balance floor that tips the rabbit into the chamber below returning to the set position. After installation, the drop box rabbit trap is left in an unset position for a long period to allow rabbits to start using the tunnel with confidence. Once the rabbits are using the tunnel with confidence the lock can be taken off the counter balance and set. This method of rabbit control can produce excellent results. Sometimes 100 rabbits can be taken in a single night from a line of boxes however number decrease over time bring the rabbits down to an acceptable level.