How do you control Rabbits (without shooting)?

[mecsw500]

Got that, a looong time ago - and extra insulation in all the walls, reflective & heavily insulated roofing material, heavy block-out curtains on all the windows, and a 1.8m 'verandah' of sorts over the front windows - each of which has helped 'a little', but cumulatively, not a great deal; but I've found over some years of trying various front garden options (including a couple of different 'desert-scapes' - I had some very impressive cactii that were much harder to get out than you'd think!) that anything hard &/or heat reflective really pushes up the temps in the North facing rooms (where the sun beats down most of the time) - not that we have many, but since we're on the South side of the street and the block is deeper than it is wide, without a knock-down & re-build, we're sorta stuck with them, we've found that even with an additional commercial A/C operating all day on the front rooms only (we've got sufficient solar, so it doesn't cost anything more for electricity), the extra heat in those two rooms radiates quite uncomfortably into the rest of the house all summer. Lawn, actual lawn, not just 'green stuff', is the only thing I've found, and that most home owners in the State have found, that actually reduces that to any significant degree... so far, anyway!

I'm beginning to think about maybe trying a water feature, sorta like a moat (I wonder if I could electrify it too?? ) Not sure what the local council would think about either, tho; and now that the suburbs have reached out to surround us, we can't get away with lotsa things we used to be able to do! (Hence, the no shooting!) We're not even allowed to partake of the monthly ritual of naked yodelling to the full moon at midnight! Mind you, I only know that cos they arrested a dozen people for doing just such a thing just last summer!

There must be some solution as my personal experience of Australia is that half the wildlife is out there to kill you.

Naked yodelling? How long was it before they let you out on bail after that? That sounds risky too, one slip and those little buggers have sharp teeth.

Do flamethrowers count as a weapon? They don't here in the US. You don't even need a permit.

I grew up in East London, the only wildlife we had were drug dealers and knife wielding muggers. Here in the US, bears, moose and cougars don't scare me in comparison.

 

[Little Blue]

Just a quick thought. Do people have any ideas on building a house in the ground? I have a friend who had a unique idea for doing that, but his wife said No Way.

Sometimes dirt seems to get in way.
Just wanted to help you out.
Have a Blessed Day.

 

[mecsw500]

Peter might be able to comment on this, but I believe there is a town in the Australian Outback that is precisely this, most of it is underground. This is to get out of the steering heat.

People build homes in old missile silos.

There’s a few houses near me here in Utah built into the hillside, complete with turf on the root but they are very much an oddity so I’m sure his wife is thinking re-sale value.

So, it’s feasible and possibly desirable from an environmental perspective, but whether you could get financing to do so might be challenging.

 

[Peter Aawen]

Peter might be able to comment on this, but I believe there is a town in the Australian Outback that is precisely this, most of it is underground. This is to get out of the steering heat.

People build homes in old missile silos.

There’s a few houses near me here in Utah built into the hillside, complete with turf on the root but they are very much an oddity so I’m sure his wife is thinking re-sale value.

So, it’s feasible and possibly desirable from an environmental perspective, but whether you could get financing to do so might be challenging.

There is such a town, only nowdays, there's a lot more of it above ground than there was in the past. I used to head out that way a fair bit, and I'm old enough to remember back when just about the only things above ground there were the blower truck on a pole at the turn off, the servo, and the metal tree (you gotta have something for the dogs to sniff & pee on! ) But nowdays, it looks very much like many other small Outback towns, only it is about twice the size of what you can see, the rest of it is still underground. Check it out:

Home - Coober Pedy SA

Btw, there aren't too many rabbits out there - even in a good year, there's not much for them to eat - but if they ever learn to digest rock, potch, and a bit of Opal, WATCH OUT!

 

[mecsw500]

A town built like a giant warren but with no bunnies.

I presume a “servo” is a service station?

 

[EdMat]

Home - Coober Pedy SA

Thanks Peter, interesting read

 

[BajaRon]

 

[Baird4444]

Nah, this is the 'Off Topic Board', we can talk about just about anything here... except for politics, definitely not politics!

As for the pellet gun, that might be a viable option in your part of the World, and would be even here, if only we were another few km's out of town! But because we're now in a 'township zone', shooting is 'legally' not allowed unless you're an authorised 'Animal Control Officer' - and our local Council has just one of them! Besides, if I used a 'quiet' gun of any sort, I could certainly keep them off the lawn, but only if I guarded it every minute of the day, 24/7 (they've even come onto the lawn while I've been sitting on the front verandah dictating this, just a few metres away, and they come back within minutes of being chased away! ) but whatever way I might kill them, then I'd hafta be able to dispose of the bodies in a way that wouldn't reveal that they died from any projectile, and by my earlier 'estimation' that mean there'd be waaay too many carcasses to burn, bury, or dispose of otherwise in a way that doesn't draw unwanted attention! I can't put anything more into the ground in the back yard, too many b... We're not allowed to burn (and they stink when you burn them anyway) and if I put any more in the tip &/or garbage, 'people' will ask even more pointed questions than they do already!

Here in Oz, any projectile weapon falls into the same category, including slings, slingshots, bows & arrows, crossbows, spears, spear guns, whatever, even an air powered 'spud gun' shooting tiny organic pellets! Mind you, I do wonder if I'd get away with using one of those small 'modified bicycle pump' style spud guns shooting 'pellets' of poisoned carrots or wheat grains?! That'd really just be poisoning them, wouldn't it? Probably wouldn't get away with it tho, cos it's still a 'projectile'.

I've considered the higher fence, &/or using wire mesh instead of bird netting, but I already got a warning from our local Council about the bird netting, cos we aren't allowed to have any 'fences or fence like' structures in front of the house due to encumbrances - apparently, anything like that in front of the house clearly has to be a temporary structure that gets removed daily! So a higher wire fence might be doable and may be my only viable option, but it'll be a pain to put up and take down every day!



That ^ is also something that might work well where you are, and it used to work here too, but not where we are now 'in town'! There's very few non-domestic dogs or cats around here, any animal that isn't registered is actively 'removed' or 'culled' on a regular basis; and all the registered/domesticated animals have curfews and fairly stringent over-night controls imposed. Domestic cats aren't allowed outside at all unless they're in a fully enclosed (including overhead) wire run; and cos it's now a town, dogs need to be supervised and under control at all times. So any cats or dogs loose on the streets at night fairly rapidly become 'former' cats or dogs. And because the Wetlands just down the road from us is a Wildlife & Native Bird Sanctuary, we get very regular sweeps from the local Animal Control Officer, but he's just not running over or shooting enough rabbits when he does a sweep!

There's been a very active 'Fox Eradication Program' in the area too, so we don't have too many of them around any more, altho there is one aging dog fox known to be around the place and still eluding 'capture' (with a high velocity lead injection!) - I guess he might get slower as he gets fatter, but that'll probably just mean he gets shot sooner rather than later!?! As for hawks & eagles, they tend to keep away from the built up areas, and outside of those, they're so well fed now that the Wildlife Protection mob are often out picking them up off the roadsides and taking them to shelters until they digest enough/lose enough weight to be able to fly again!! No joke! We've got Whistling Kites here that are growing bigger'n most of the hawks, and the hawks that are almost as big as Wedge Tail Eagles - there's probably going to be a population boom in all of them soon, cos they're all so well fed! That might help with the rabbit problem, altho by then, the rabbit numbers will probably be so much greater that it's an un-winnable battle, and there won't be anything green left by then anyway!

Snakes, we've got plenty of them, and they too, are already so well fed that they can't eat any more and almost can't be bothered to get out of people's way! That'll mean a population boom of them soon too, but I doubt it'll make much impact on the rabbit population growth - and that'll probably mean a snake eradication program; which will likely lead to a boom in the rat & mouse population and another eradication program, and... Ah, you get the picture!

I'll try the Cayenne pepper, it's a possibility, but then, given the limited & short term success of the rodent/bird repellent spray (which is a capsaicum/chilli/pepper based product) I doubt it'll work for too long - worth a shot tho, and cheaper than the spray! And if that doesn't work, I guess that if I want to keep a green lawn out front, I'll be putting up and taking down wire netting fences every day for the foreseeable future!

the Fox Irradication program has removed a natural predator of the bunnies, domino effect.