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Canada

Ok have a serious problem here folks.

Ok we are haveing a problem with Rabbits along with ground hawgs on the average night you can turn the lights on in the back yard ( from inside) and see a dozen or so rabbits takeing off from the patch and yard area into the bushes.

( this explains why last couple of years gardens were eatten to almost nothing.

I was thinking of building an Fence ( chicken wire) around the patch but not sure if this will leave my plants with enough room to grow out of patch onto the yard so kinda need the room.
is there anything i can spread around the yard to keep this pests out so they dont destroy my pumpking patch along with my other flower beds and shrubs?
thanks

Dave

4/10/2004 11:42:03 PM

Indiana

Rabbits are really hard to get rid of(because they multiply like rabbits). I have heard fox piss is a good way to get rid of most rodents, but I personally dont believe that going to be cost effective or work for that matter. outside of city limits, the 22 does a good job, inside the city limits leg traps and a blunt force object works nicely. Sounds harsh, but there is no chance a rabbit, groundhog, or some other pest is going to mess up my whole summer's work if I have anything to say about it. To much money, time, and effort involved. Relocation with those have a heart traps is just pawning off the problem to someone else.

Tom

4/11/2004 3:04:00 AM

Johnston, R.I.

relocate them into a 55 galbarrel of water while still in the trap

4/11/2004 6:03:05 AM

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Check the recipes with rabbits. You’ll get a bunch of ideas how to get them live or dead. You have enough time until the plant gets big when you will have to remove the fence. One per week should do. Mmmm…

4/11/2004 6:38:46 AM

Ljubljana, Slovenia

I got hungry so just an idea: make a fence with small holes like in a mouse trap... and do not forget to save one rabbit for the pumpkin soup!

4/11/2004 6:52:20 AM

[email protected]

I would expand the patch & fence it. The pumpkins will need the room.

My biggest customer buys Predator Urine from a company named Kenmore. However a quick Google search yielded a bunch of Sears appliances. So perhaps their supplier summary list has the incorrect spelling.

At any rate, this outfit supplies them with 8 oz bottles of Wolf, Bobcat, & Coyote urine which they use to load 30 day dispensers. Their research lab is the most sophisticated kind in the country. They have discovered inermittantly (by region) favorable results on certain types of pests. Each bottle costs them around $10 & lasts a month.

Another angle I have seen in local use is to drink copious amounts of beer & other fluids while working the patch. Then the grower urinates in a modified plastic 1 gallon milk jug. Use imagination for jug modification. The pee-pots are left all over the patch & are supposed to ward off deer & other bothersome creatures. I cannot speak for the effectiveness of this technique.

We have found that Miller's Hot-Sauce has been effective against just about anything except birds. It is labeled for rabbits & is supposed to be very good. We don't have trouble with them so I've no first hand experience. Customers who've used Hot-Sauce against rabbits have reported good results.

4/11/2004 7:53:42 AM

Norton, MA

Don't build a fence, it's a waste (for the groundhogs anyway). My neighbor built a 4 ft high chicken wire fence burried a foot deep in wet clay-like soil and the groundhog tunneled under by the second night. She was growing mostly flowers but he wanted those few onions she had I guess. Try dried blood, it's VERY overpriced but it works in most cases. Alex.

4/11/2004 8:42:28 AM

Aberdeen, SD

multiple rings of claymore mines. the 700 ball bearing size projectiles and the 1.5 lbs of C-4 high explosive will take care of them... might tick off the neighbors but it will fix the pest issue.

in all seriousness, the predator pee works wonders

4/11/2004 9:19:43 AM

Ontario, Canada.

Dave, I got them too. Will traps work? I mean the swing door kind. The bastards have nibbled the tops off of my 3' trees in my nursery area.

4/11/2004 9:37:00 AM

Tipp City, Ohio

Try finding someone who raises rabbits. Then sprad the manure around the patch, on trees or near plants that they most likely want to chomp on. Rabbits will stay away from those areas. It works for rabbits. As for the groundhogs, either a .22 or traps or set up a natural fence that groundhogs like to eat such as green beans. They will head to the beans and hopefully not find the pumpkin plants.

4/11/2004 9:47:01 AM

Atlanta, Georgia

I prefer to call in MLRS instead of using Claymores...

I would say to use either a .22 or the live traps as well.
Don't know what you could use for live bait for a rabbit though....Maybe someone else has an idea.

Since trapping and shooting are illegal in germany I prefer to use the quieter trapping method.

You had better start early though to make sure there isn't even one live rabbit or groundhog nearby.
Groundhogs are simple to shoot on a sunny day.
Michel

4/11/2004 10:41:28 AM

Greene County, Pa.

i really dont have too much of a rabbit problem because of my dog, he either kills them or they know better then to come into my yard. I shoot every rabbit and groundhog i see unless the dog gets it first. sit and wait for them to come under the dusk to dawn light and blast them with the .22. like others said rabbits are hard to get rid of because they have so many babies..Also my dog travels our 76 acres this time of year and kills all the babie rabbits in there nests. I love my dog..

BuddyG

4/11/2004 10:52:57 AM

Montoursville, PA

For those who spend hundreds on this hobby here is a good way to spend some more hundreds. Check into the Beeman Model R7, made in West Germany. It is a specialized .177 pellet gun with a report no louder than the storm door going shut. The .177 pellet is fps (feet per second) nearly equal to the 22 cal standard fire arm.

To involved to explain here but it is spring powered not a co2 or pump up type. It is in fact just like the gun Rogers and Clark used when on their famous American Nortwest Territory trip.

If you wait for an automobile to be passing the front of your property that is the time to be shooting on the back side and visa versa.

This is not a toy. The price will clearly indicate the quality. In the literature the report is recorded according to the silence of each model. In relation to fps and resulting report the Model R7 is the best choice.

As for ground hogs most farm centers sell gas devises to throw down the hole. They are not hard to use and fix those critters in one easy application a a cost that is reasonable. It makes no report and if done after dark as instructed smoke will not be seen by the neighbors. The hogs won't either after the treatment.

4/11/2004 11:18:00 AM

Woodburn, Indiana

put moth balls around your patch that will keep them out. i used it last year after i figured out what was chewing my 800 pounder. also we used live traps this winter because they were eating every plant in our yard.

4/11/2004 12:04:20 PM

Indiana

A crossbow works wonders on the critters also a live trap baited with apple works well also.
Steve

4/11/2004 1:35:08 PM

Canada

Well seeing my problem is more Rabbits then anything what i'm gonna try is this.

am gonna put the chicken wire fence up 4 foot out from the patch and sink it into the ground 6" all the way around haveing the fence a total of 3.5" tall, I doubt they will try to jump it but who knows, problem is my patch is in the city so i cant have anything thats too junky looking or the neaighbours will complain my entire back yard is fenced in with a wood fence but they still find a way under it so i was thinking i may take chicken wire and run it a foot deep around the entire fence in my back yard. it may help it may not its allot of work but ive got today and tomouro off so we will see what the results are.

Ive also got 4 "live" release traps i keep one at each corner of the yard and last year i was getting 4 rabbits every night and releaseing them out into the country about 20 minutes away from my house. I did this for a good 2 weeks catching a total of 43 rabbits in that 2 week period.

all were released out in country but eaither there is still a shit load more of them around or they all found there way back :-(

we will see how the chicken wire works, This is my first attempt at growing a large pumpking this year 2004 and i want a good year. Ive spent a long last fall and past winter collecting seeds and reading books and information off the internet also spent allot of money on soil tests and adding stuff into the garden to get my PH levels up

which all in the end = too much work to have a couple rabbits ruin it on me

later Dave

4/11/2004 1:49:23 PM

[email protected]

You're wasting too much fuel Dave. We'll expect a bountiful Rabbit Stew at your place this summer on the patch tour.

4/11/2004 3:00:29 PM

Topsfield, Ma.

Here's a heads-up Dave. Use the smallest mesh chicken wire you can find if you decide to go that route. Had baby woodchucks wiggling right thru the chicken wire and the
2"x3" mesh fence inside that one! Saw more than one baby rabbit inside the patch too. Woodchucks are lazy in this neck of the woods. My fence is buried close to a foot and they've never successfully gotten under it. It's only 3' tall and I've never seen one climb it. Best of luck!

4/11/2004 6:38:10 PM

Litchfield N. H. 03052

This may sound crazy,but on woodchucks this works great.Vegetable farmers use this method a large have a heart trap wraped with heavy black plastic. Leave the end open, they will think its the enterance to a hole and you got them. We have a rope on the handle to make retreaving easer from the pond or river. Its works can get 3 to 5 per week.

4/11/2004 8:30:57 PM

Hayes, Virginia

cat urine for the groundhogs.sound stupid but i use, used cat litter in the groundhog holes and around the out side of my fence about 6inches deep.an old farmer told me to try it and it worked for me.sounds crazy but hell if it works.i just bought a rabbit proof fence from lowes for my tomatoes will see how rabbit proof the fence really is??

4/11/2004 9:24:23 PM

Wichita, KS

If you want to spend a LOT of time but not much $$, try this. Buy enough hardware cloth to lay down flat around the entire garden. With wire cutters, clip every other cube and bend the loose end/s up. It will be too pokey for any beast to walk across without getting bloody.

Time consuming, but it should take care of your problem.

4/11/2004 9:57:51 PM

Hobbiton New Zealand

Can you buy Rabbit poison over there here you just ring the pest destruction board and they deliver as much as they think it will take to fix the problem.
Also just had the easter bunny shoot down the south island 11500 bunnies were checked in over a 24 hour shooting time.
They hold the shoot in the same area every year and that is the record so far by 700.

4/12/2004 3:28:30 AM

Key West, FL

Put up that black silt fence stuff they use at constructions sites. Keeps rabbits and dogs out of my patch and works as a wind break too.

4/12/2004 2:37:03 PM

Gilbertsville PA

.22 shorts work fine very little noise ,nobody has to know about it. good luck , you could always get a dog.

4/12/2004 8:36:13 PM

Pumpkintown, SC

I'd take a bunch of rabbits in my patch over any one groundhog. They're called hogs for a reason! The rabbits are just too dumb to not be seen. The big eaters are the less seen though more destructive groundhogs. I've always used the cages and am already up to 4 hogs caught since 3/1. However, I can never keep up with them!
This year an electric (low wire) fence will be installed. Costs less than you think. We'll see, BF

4/13/2004 5:36:58 PM