RABBITS

 

Rabbits live as a community in burrows and are often seen at dawn and dusk in grass verges, grass land, heath land, woodland, meadows, fields of young wheat and oil seed rape and gardens. Rabbits weigh 4 -5 lbs and are 15 – 19 inches long.

 

Lifecycle

 

• Kits or young rabbits are born in special nests away from the main rabbit burrow, where their mother visits them up twice a day for a few minutes before blocking up the hole, after 10 -11 days their eyes will open and they are eating on their own at 14 days old.
• Rabbits can breed from 6 month old and can have up 6 litters per year, producing up to 5 kits per litter 
• In the wild rabbits only generally live for 3 years, but they have been known to live for 8 or 9 years
• At the last count it was estimated that there was 38 million rabbits in the UK with that number growing by 2% per year.

Control

An Order has been made under Section One of the Pests Act 1954 by which England and Wales (except for the City of London, the Isles of Scilly and Skokholm Island) have been declared a Rabbit Clearance Area. In this area, every occupier of land is responsible for controlling wild rabbits on his/her land or for taking steps to prevent them causing damage. This is a continuing obligation.

 

There are several ways to reduce rabbit populations, these include:

 

• Shooting
• Ferreting
• Trapping,
• Fencing
• Gassing

As a professional and ethical pest control company we recommend gassing and fencing.

 

Proven Results

By using aluminium Phosphide gas tablets, in the right conditions (wet earth and low undergrowth, October - March) we would expect to reduce a population of rabbits by 75 – 85% over a three week period.

 

This is a very labour intensive, but efficient way of reducing a rabbit population specifically on agricultural and recreational land and we find it more effective than shooting or ferreting.

 

The other method is to put up a rabbit fence, this stops the rabbits infesting a certain area, but it has to be done on all sides as the rabbits will often find a way around it.

Rabbits enjoy eating the plants that we enjoy looking at, so if your garden backs on to fields, there is a likely hood that rabbits will come into your garden to help themselves.

 

Although they do not make their homes in gardens, they can access them from the outside and they can do a lot of damage by digging holes in the lawn (especially in the spring time) and eating shrubs, vegetable patches and young trees.

 

The best method of control in this situation is to put up a rabbit fence to stop them getting into the garden. If there are burrows these can often be effectively treated with gas.