Author Archives: Stephen

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About Stephen

Rabbiter, killer of small fluffy things. Owner of a lot of dogs and ferrets.

Early breeding rabbits and pups

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It seems we are into a bumper season for the rabbits as they have started very early, here we are at the start of July and we are already digging nests up and seeing young rabbits. A litter of eight was found two weeks ago and everything is heavily pregnant or has already dropped.

These were got last week, very well developed rabbits for this time of year.

 

We also have a litter of puppies on the ground and ready to go!  Knowing the parentage these should be great rabbiters.   They’ve just come home after being rared by a young lass,  it makes for such better dogs when kids are around as they handle them so much, where as adults are always a bit busy….

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Thermal imaging and rabbits

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Thermal scopes and monocular’s are starting to change the way we work, they are very effective on rabbits in the right situation.

The white dots early on in the video below are rabbits out around 300 metres+   I’ve run the spotlight over this block a few times on my way past and hardly see a thing.    The rabbits are on the neighbours (thankfully) but we try very hard to keep the rabbit proof boundary fence in top condition, that in itself is an ongoing mission.

Rubbish, cover and rabbits

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This is one of those thing’s,  no matter the size of your property rubbish piles are a rabbits friend and the same thing goes for big patches of cover.   Rabbits just love living in them, even under compost heaps!
Another favourite spot is decks, it really does pay to rabbit proof them, ideally done at the design stage.

Of course the ferrets just love it when we do jobs like these….

Rabbits almost everywhere

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It’s quite easy to see who has been keeping on top of the rabbits and who hasn’t!

I didn’t realise how long since I last posted here, but with good reason. The dogs (well not so much as it’s been to hot), ferrets and I have been very busy killing rabbits. The places that haven’t been doing any rabbit control are starting to have real problems….and it’s only going to get worse!
I’ve had a lot of people saying “we need to get the virus here”, meaning the RCD (rabbit calicivirus disease).  What these people fail to realise it’s here all the time, however there is roughly an 80% immunity to it now which changes from area to area. Alarm bells ringing yet?  So for every two rabbits you see dead there is another eight that are immune. Once the conditions are right the virus activates and we start to see a few dead ones around.

The photo below is from a block I last did 5-6 months ago,  to say I was happy with how it looks is an understatement.   Yes it still has rabbits but over all it is looking bloody good! This farmer rings me when he starts to see a few around and I shoot in and have a quick mop up.   In fact this property is proof of how well a good pest management plan works.  A little often so any problems are nipped in the bud before they turn into big expensive problems.

Dogs from the left: Jack, Tom, Shake, Otis (big hairy one with the nickname wanker), Fly, Penny, Bolt, guy and in the foreground Patch. The shotgun is a Yildiz 20 gauge side by side.

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Till next time have fun…

Poisoning Rabbits

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The last resort for rabbit control is using poison, whether Pindone or 1080 is to be used. Poison operations are expensive with the final costs not really being known as loss of production and other related issues are never accounted for in the initial price. 1080 particularly is becoming more and more frowned upon as there is a lot of questions being raised about it’s use as well as court proceedings involving 1080. Basically it’s days are numbered.
I have heard of lambing issues directly related to land that has been poisoned with 1080 causing a drop of over 10% of lambs surviving caused by it’s use. All time periods were adhered to yet lambing rates still dropped. It seems scientists haven’t done much research on this which is yet another issue, and one that needs serious attention.
On bigger properties another issue that can arise after poisoning is the need to do weed control. With the land not being grazed for such a long time the weeds can get away to a point were stock will not bring it back under control, so follow up weed control can be required. This is a direct cost associated with the 1080 operations.

Even our own EPA (Environment Protection Agency) isn’t sure about the rules and what can be used as can be seen here “1080 is the only toxin that is able to be applied aerially throughout mainland New Zealand.” from http://www.epa.govt.nz/search-databases/HSNO%20Application%20Register%20Documents/HRE05002-019.pdf
In fact Pindone is also able to be applied the same way…. While not perfect it is better than 1080.

The main reason poison ends up being used is because it is a last ditch effort when nothing else has been done or people have had a few mates, the boy/farm worker doing a bit of shooting. This is NOT a pest management plan but a bit of fun, there seems to be some confusion where this is concerned.    This should not happen if a proper management plan is in place. Normally rabbits get out of control  because of a failed pest management plan or no plan at all.

Ergo the need no matter the size of the property to have some kind of plan in place.