Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Be very, very quiet, I'm hunting rabbits

Well I've tried everything. I have a fence around my greens (actually two fences, one large another chicken wire). I triend wolf urine, fox urine, pin wheels, decoy snakes, liquid fence (guarenteed it says). Still the bunnies keep attacking. They have been moving on to eating the cucumbers, the pumpkins, and the eggplants.

I had to buy a pellet gun last night to do some rabbit hunting.

When I can go out in my backyard and see 8-10 rabbits, it's not wildlife, it's an infiltration. I did not spend hours after work everyday tilling land by hand, spend hundreds of dollars on fertilizer, plants and materials, just so rabbits can eat it. It wouldn't be bad if they just stuck to one or two plants, but they will strip plants clean and keep going.

The same is true with woodchucks. My major concern with chucks is that they will eventually dig and bite the liner of the pool (where they like to dig) causing me to spend another 5-6 grand on a pool liner.

The whole issue is not fences, its not organic deterrence, its not guns. It that I don't have a dog. there is something to say for a large meat eating predator roaming your property that keeps the rodents away. However, dogs are expensive. It may be the way to go. I can't fence in the entire yard with chicken wire hoping to keep the woodchucks and rabbits out. So I need to control the population.

Perhaps I'll get a dog, I haven't decided yet. I remember as a kid we had problems with chucks and my dog Shena took care of it. Lynne mentioned other people that have gardens but didn't have problems with rabbits (they all had big dogs).

I really don't want a dog though.

No comments: