An Unwelcome Garden Visitor / myLot

Rockingham, Australia

June 25, 2016 9:16pm CST

This morning's visitor to our garden is not nearly as welcome as the kangaroo from several days ago although I have a soft spot for baby bunnies. Vince always says he loves rabbits – especially with bacon. Rabbits were introduced to Australia by the British and quickly became firmly established. They denuded much of our native lands and put many a farmer out of business. The introduction of a mosquito-borne virus called myxomatosis brought them back under some degree of control but we will never be completely rid of them. Later, 1080 poison was introduced. 1080 is derived from one of the native plants of Australia. Our own native animals have a natural immunity to the poison but foxes and rabbits succumb.

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35 responses

crazyhorseladycx

@crazyhorseladycx (39515)

• United States

26 Jun 16

rabbits're quite prolific producers, sadly. i find't sad that the use'f poisons came into play...'n remain today. although, i understand the need to control non-native species.

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The Horse

@TheHorse (205250)

• Walnut Creek, California

26 Jun 16

He's too cute. You can't ...poison him, can you?

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succeednow

@succeednow (1633)

• Singapore

28 Jun 16

If they're so nice - especially with bacon, then why aren't they on the menu? Or is it a case of too much supply but not enough demand? Maybe the authority could come up with a special recipe and market them as a "local delicacy" and export them to other countries. That will not only take care of the nuisance problem but also earn a bit of foreign exchange as well.

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succeednow

@succeednow (1633)

• Singapore

28 Jun 16

@JudyEv Pity that they're not popular as a stable meat source. As regards catching them in the wild I'm sure some smart guys can think of a way to catch them easily if there's demand for them.

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

28 Jun 16

@succeednow If there was an easy way they wouldn't have go to such plague proportions. Lots of different methods have been tried but they are very prolific breeders which makes the problem that much harder.

Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

28 Jun 16

They've never become very popular as a staple meat source. Any that appear in the shops (butchers) are raised especially for the meat market. The wild ones aren't easy to catch in marketable quantities.

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Jekca

@Jessicalynnt (50525)

• Centralia, Missouri

27 Jun 16

we have em, and one must protect the gardens and such, I dunno what farmers do, prob put in more safe places for hawks

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Jekca

@Jessicalynnt (50525)

• Centralia, Missouri

28 Jun 16

@JudyEv that's a lot of rabbits

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

27 Jun 16

When we were farming we would plough up the rabbit burrows and sometimes poison a water-hole. They were really in plague proportions.

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

29 Jun 16

@Jessicalynnt You can imagine that they decimated pastures and crops and left little feed for domestic animals.

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susan

@sueznewz2 (10409)

• Alicante, Spain

29 Jun 16

For such a cute little thing.... it eats s lot..and of course multiplies out of control....

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susan

@sueznewz2 (10409)

• Alicante, Spain

29 Jun 16

@JudyEv mmmm another good reason to keep an eye on them...

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

29 Jun 16

I'm also a bit worried about them tunnelling under the house although I haven't really seen any evidence of it yet.

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Jeff Moffitt

@moffittjc (118365)

• Gainesville, Florida

26 Jun 16

Those pesky rabbits! Your husband is right...they would go great with bacon! I don't know which is worse here in my own community...the overabundance of squirrels, or the overabundance of rabbits!

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

27 Jun 16

They were creating huge holes under our big shed. We were worried it would fall in one day but we've buried netting round the outside walls now - about a foot deep. That has stopped the varmints!

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Jeff Moffitt

@moffittjc (118365)

• Gainesville, Florida

27 Jun 16

@JudyEv The netting was a great idea! Sounds like it did the trick!

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

27 Jun 16

@moffittjc The first thing we tried was attaching a hose to the exhaust of my car and poking that down the hole to spifflicate them

but you wouldn't know if it worked or not and they just repopulated anyway. We may not have won that battle but we've won the war! Well, the one under the shed anyway.

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Koalemos

@Asylum (47893)

• Manchester, England

26 Jun 16

This was one of the most destructive mistakes that the British made during their period of expansion. What was originally taken over in small numbers as pets flourished in the wild due to the lack of native predators. I have seen documentaries that show huge masses of rabbits gliding across the land. I was not even aware that any realistic control had been introduced yet.

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Heather Echola

@GardenGerty (157485)

• United States

26 Jun 16

My cat helps keep the population under control, as well as the snakes.

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Patsie Hatley

@Hatley (163781)

• Garden Grove, California

27 Jun 16

a rabbit can really demolish a gardem ,much worse than raccons can.

hereandthere

@hereandthere (45651)

• Philippines

27 Jun 16

here we are more familiar with the white rabbits in pet shops that are cute and cuddly as pets, not pests.

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

27 Jun 16

There are some wonderful pet rabbits - with floppy ears and really fluffy coats! I'd SO like a rabbit!

Inlemay

@Inlemay (17714)

• South Africa

27 Jun 16

Oh that is terrible of Vince!!! My childhood friend lived on a rabbit farm and only after knowing her a while did i find out it was for exported meat and other. . . eeek, it took me years to get over that, now I read how Vince would like his rabbits!

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

27 Jun 16

I thump him every time he says it! The little ones are so cute. :)

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Angie

@andriaperry (116860)

• Anniston, Alabama

26 Jun 16

I have a million here and they are looking to eat my veggies. The deer ate my green beans last week!

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

27 Jun 16

Oh, what a shame. Deer would be as hard to keep out as kangaroos.

Rebecca Huston

@Telynor (1763)

• United States

27 Jun 16

But it's such a cute bunny! We go in cycles of them, and when they get many in number, the local hawks start appearing. After a couple of weeks, no more bunnies.

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Judy Evans

@JudyEv (325345)

• Rockingham, Australia

27 Jun 16

I wish that would happen here. We could do with a few hawks around the place.

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Rebecca Huston

@Telynor (1763)

• United States

27 Jun 16

@JudyEv The hawls -- and eagles and ravens -- are pretty intent hunters around here. Especially the hawks. The owls we get to hear at night, which is pretty interesting.

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@dgobucks226 (34300)

•

10 Oct 17

Just had to say that is a great photo of the rabbit!

theSids

@thesids (22180)

• Bhubaneswar, India

26 Jun 16

I have a soft spot for baby bunnies. Vince always says he loves rabbits – especially with bacon. I can somehow understand this. I dont know about foxes, but yes, bunnies are really very delicate. Even a sharp change in the climate can have bad effects on them. We (me and brother) had a few white ones when we were in our teens, as pets.