The basis of many a character in children’s stories, the rabbit is quite a cute looking animal. A common site on grass verges and across the countryside, rabbits can be delightful to watch but, they can also wreak havoc.

Like many other pests, both in the country and the town, controlling the rabbit population is an essential part of active land management.

The problem with rabbits…

The one main problem with an uncontrolled rabbit population is damage. With teeth that are continually growing, they have to be constantly gnawing in order to keep these teeth sharp, but not too long. They gnaw and eat virtually anything…

  • Trees – young saplings are especially susceptible to rabbit damage, a condition that, if they survive, will see the trunk have a permanent ring around it where the rabbit has stripped the bark away. The tree can become infected, growing off balance, as well as with stunted growth. This compromise to its strength means as it grows bigger and heavier, the tree becomes more and more unstable. For those farmers with orchards, rabbits can cause expensive damage to their prized stock of fruit trees as a result.
  • Burrowing – rabbits, as we all know, live under ground. A large concentration of rabbits in one place creates two problems: the first is that the ground can, as result of the tunnelling activities become unstable. The second is the burrow entrance itself which, if livestock catch their hooves or feet in can cause them to have injuries to their feet and legs. Hidden burrow entrances are a nuisance to every horse rider.
  • Crops – rabbits can also decimated whole crops in next to no time; from a farmers’ field to the prize vegetables of a gardener, the rabbits is no one’s friend on the allotment, regardless of how cute and fluffy they are.

Rabbit control

Keeping the rabbit population is, therefore, important and so more and more people are realising that taking measures to actively control the population as well as limit access to their land is important. Complete eradication is not an option; as well as being impossible and expensive, rabbits are important to the local ecology.

The rabbit population is, according to experts, increasing and hence rabbit control methods are wide and varied; they can include such methods as…

  • Ferreting
  • Snaring
  • Gassing
  • Shooting

Which method is used, depends on the location but all rabbit control assignments are completed humanely; no rabbit will suffer unnecessarily.

Prevention

Some customers also look to invest in control measures, whereby rabbits are prevented, as far as possible, from entering a certain area. It is possible, for example, to erect rabbit proof fencing around allotments or major crop fields that can prevent a huge number of rabbits from tunnelling underneath fencing and eating through the crop etc. Although initially this can be a large outlay, it can reap dividends in that your prized vegetable and crops can grow undisturbed.

Rabbits know no boundaries and so, if you have a rabbit control issue, then Mr Pesty is the local to Lincoln pest control company to call. With vast experience in dealing with rabbit control issues and prevention, we are the right company to call!