Something is digging holes in my field

[DabDab]

Mixy is a vile disease that delivers a death that would not wish on any living creature. There was tons of it here when we moved in - everywhere you looked there were bunnies staggering around and crashing into things. Over that summer my terrier must have pretty much culled the lot and I haven't seen any poorly bunnies since thankfully.

The now healthy bunny population do dig shallow pits in the field every so often, and in the school, but they save their deep holes for the banks and hedgerows. They like the cover of the tree and we have plenty of those here to keep them off the fields.

 

[Pedantic]

Ours dig divetts all over the fields, and deep holes you can get your arm down anywhere they fancy.

 

[mini-eventer]

I fill my holes with my poo picking ? saves me taking it to the muck heap?

 

[planete]

I don't know anything about Mixy ? I have heard it mentioned, where does it come from ? I had a feeling it was something farmers used to control the pest, I wouldn't want to cause any suffering to the rabbits, but if it's a choice between my horse breaking his leg, or rabbits culled, then it has to be the rabbit, quick death preferred.

Shooting them with a silenced gun is the preferred method of culling them around here. It is far quicker and more humane. Finding a good man with ferrets and nets is rather difficult in the South.

Some rabbit populations have been devastated by mixi or haemmoragic disease and relocating an unwanted population to one which has lost its rabbits is a great idea but I have no idea how to achieve this.

If you have an established warren in your fields, it should really either be fenced off or dug up and levelled out as the ground can eventually collapse under horses or machinery and can be very deep.

 

[chaps89]

I don't think there's an established warren - yet! As there was only a couple of holes originally and they seemed abandoned.
But if whatever it is carries on then there soon will be ?
I will take photos in the morning.
And quite possibly stop by b&m for some bags of gravel and compost or similar
Any way of telling if it's badger vs rabbit? I suspect rabbit as the holes aren't too wide but who knows.
I know of a pest control company who will come and shoot (air rifle) and also have terriers as well as more traditional methods. But yet more money ?

 

[fredflop]

Try and put some sand or top soil around the holes to see if you can get paw prints. Generally a badger hole will be much bigger than a rabbit hole

 

[planete]

Any droppings? Badgers use latrines but rabbits scatter their droppings around and you should be able to see them.

 

[Pedantic]

Shooting them with a silenced gun is the preferred method of culling them around here. It is far quicker and more humane. Finding a good man with ferrets and nets is rather difficult in the South.

Some rabbit populations have been devastated by mixi or haemmoragic disease and relocating an unwanted population to one which has lost its rabbits is a great idea but I have no idea how to achieve this.

If you have an established warren in your fields, it should really either be fenced off or dug up and levelled out as the ground can eventually collapse under horses or machinery and can be very deep.

I wish the guns around here were "silenced", in neighboring areas the guns are ridiculous, cant see the point of the noise, it must frighten them all away after the first shot.

 

[D66]

If badgers are using the holes as a sett they take out their bedding in the morning and leave it to dry at the entrance.
So if there is a handful of dried grass near the hole during the day it is badgers. A badger hole is huge from the start, rabbit holes can become larger through use. Both can undermine the soil - there is a badger sett near us where an area the size of a tennis court has sunk about 2 foot.
You mustnt touch badger setts, but I fill rabbit holes with horse poo when poo picking.

 

[twiggy2]

I have started trying to trap the rabbits that are burrowing in my arena. No luck yet, does anyone know what the best bait is?

I plan to drive them to the moorlands where they can dig what holes they like, not kill them.
.

By law Re releasing wild animals is illegal. The risk of spreading disease from one population to another is high. Rabbits are also territorial and a rabbit from a different area will not be welcome by an established population and will have nowhere to go, it will not know where to hide and feed, the can be aggressive little buggers so rather than dump it into and area that it can cause sickness and devastation to an existing population, be attacked and injured by other rabbits and terrified due to being exposed, alone (they are very social in their known groups) and on unknown ground juat do the kind thing and catch and kill or get someone else to shoot it.

I don't know anything about Mixy ? I have heard it mentioned, where does it come from ? I had a feeling it was something farmers used to control the pest, I wouldn't want to cause any suffering to the rabbits, but if it's a choice between my horse breaking his leg, or rabbits culled, then it has to be the rabbit, quick death preferred.

It was a man-made virus that devastated the rabbit population, it is now affecting thw hare population in many areas, it's an awful way to die and they linger on and suffer a lot, some do recover but very very few.
I catch and kill any mix rabbits myself I have done since I first saw it in Norfolk when I was 15, it's a horrible thing to do but far kinder for the suffering creatures.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Badger setts are indeed protected, except for when one of the licensed badger cull teams comes round and legally shoots the badgers .

It’s a very controversial part of bovine Tb control.

 

[shortstuff99]

Badger setts are indeed protected, except for when one of the licensed badger cull teams comes round and legally shoots the badgers .

It’s a very controversial part of bovine Tb control.

They have now abandoned badger culling! Badger culling is to be phased out and replaced with vaccination. Shown to be ineffective and hampered by poor farming practices. https://www.theguardian.com/environ...d-out-replaced-vaccinations-bovine-tb-england

 

[Tiddlypom]

Oh wow, shortstuff99, how had I missed that about the badger cull, that’s brilliant news! It was never an effective control measure. It was still going on last season hereabouts.

 

[ycbm]

By law Re releasing wild animals is illegal. The risk of spreading disease from one population to another is high. Rabbits are also territorial and a rabbit from a different area will not be welcome by an established population and will have nowhere to go, it will not know where to hide and feed, the can be aggressive little buggers so rather than dump it into and area that it can cause sickness and devastation to an existing population, be attacked and injured by other rabbits and terrified due to being exposed, alone (they are very social in their known groups) and on unknown ground juat do the kind thing and catch and kill or get someone else to shoot it.

OK, I didn't realise that would be an issue, a farmer friend has been catching and releasing squirrel, and the RSPCA release fox out here. We'll shoot them.

Can you tell me what the best bait is for the trap? Lettuce and carrot aren't working.
.

 

[shortstuff99]

Oh wow, shortstuff99, how had I missed that about the badger cull, that’s brilliant news! It was never an effective control measure. It was still going on last season hereabouts.

I think it got lost in all the pandemic news!

 

[twiggy2]

OK, I didn't realise that would be an issue, a farmer friend has been catching and releasing squirrel, and the RSPCA release fox out here. We'll shoot them.

Can you tell me what the best bait is for the trap? Lettuce and carrot aren't working.
.

The RSPCA doing that is one of the many reasons they don't have the support that a charity claiming to do what they say they do should have. It's illegal and not ethical, where do they expect these foxes to go and usually they are urban foxes used to feeding from bins the are dumped into the countryside with no knowledge of how to feed themselves, the disease taken to the country fixes is also a big issue in some areas.
I have no idea on the best bait for rabbits as I would get someone to shoot or ferret them as they are much more humane ways to go. A cage traps still scares the he'll out of them being trapped in an place there is nowhere to hide, approached by us and the hauled out to be killed. Not pleasant.
As for releasing squirrels they are terrible aggressive and dumping one into an unknown area already populated again causes slow lingering deaths and spreads disease from one population to another.

 

[LegOn]

I'd contact your local gun club - they might be interesting in lamping the field and seeing whats moving around & of course then if there is any sport for them in it. A good club can offer local vermin control that isnt just shooting all they see!!

 

[Gloi]

It was a man-made virus that devastated the rabbit population, it is now affecting thw hare population in many areas, it's an awful way to die and they linger on and suffer a lot, some do recover but very very few.
.

It's not a man made disease though it was taken to Australia deliberately by man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis

Round here it comes periodically, then dies away for a while. It was bad about 10 years ago and I hated seeing the blind rabbits wandering about.

If you put predator droppings down the holes, like ferret muck, (or cat /dog if you don't have handy ferrets) they usually decide to move next door, we found. There are plenty of people round here who will come and shoot them though.

 

[dorsetladette]

I have a huge rabbit problem. We bought a male (smelly) ferret and took him out round the field, which kept to the hedge rows. He's gone now. My other half is trying to shoot them, but is't very good with a gun.

When we first took over the field there was a massive hole along a central fence line which people had just fenced off around and not done any thing about. I put 4 barrow loads of manure down it and stamped it down. I've had to re fill it a few times but it seems to be working. I also fill a few other holes in as I poo pick. Its a bit of a battle for a while but the rabbits seem to get bored before I do and move on.

I could probably feed a third world country for a couple of years with the rabbits in our field. You would not believe the amount of grass they eat too!!!!

 

[chaps89]

 

[chaps89]

Plenty of holes to take photos of! No signs of any droppings or prints unfortunately. I can understand the filled in holes being dug out as the topsoil is very loose but the rest of the field is like concrete so how the heck they're managing it I've no idea.
Will have a Google for local gun club and I'm off to b&m for stones and soil ?

 

[Tiddlypom]

Those look like bunny holes to me. Good luck with the filling in.

 

[southerncomfort]

Can you buy mixy to kill rabbits ? and is it harmful to horses, we have a dreadful rabbit problem this year

Same here. We've had to get a rabbit man in. He catches them in traps and then humanely despatches them.

So far he has caught 0 rabbits and 1 rat.

 

[dorsetladette]

Same here. We've had to get a rabbit man in. He catches them in traps and then humanely despatches them.

So far he has caught 0 rabbits and 1 rat.

Its so frustrating isn't it. We pull up at the gate and see a couple of dozen munching away on our precious grass. Their not even scared of us anymore!

 

[Meowy Catkin]

We had a rabbit man come a few years back. He had a whippet, several ferrets and a gun. He cleared out the warren in the middle of the field and took the dispatched rabbits as his 'payment' and I somehow ended up with a horse...

Sadly mixy spread through our area more recently and we hardly ever see rabbits now. I'm sure they'll come back in time but it was really heartbreaking when they were all dying.

 

[chaps89]

@Meowy Catkin I think you need to expand on how you got a horse out of that deal?! Sounds like a great deal to me!

 

[Meowy Catkin]

The rabbit guy had just sorted out the rabbits at another property in our area. The other people had a yearling arab that they needed to rehome as they were suffering from health issues. The rabbit guy saw my horses and asked if I liked arabs, knowing full well what the answer was. Not long after I had a new yearling arab. Still got him, sod that he is. He nipped my bum this morning as I picked out a hoof.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Chaps, that's rabbits. Got the same going on in my top paddock ?? too many, the local prey birds are doing their bit to murder a few but still too many.
One hole is so deep, B Fuzzy could put her leg down it! I'm resorting later today to finding noxious smelly stuff to lob in holes before stopping them up. It doesn't help that a huge dog fox is digging into the holes to widen them (saw him at weekend), so I need to leave one open but stop the rest up!

 

[Steerpike]

The RSPCA doing that is one of the many reasons they don't have the support that a charity claiming to do what they say they do should have. It's illegal and not ethical, where do they expect these foxes to go and usually they are urban foxes used to feeding from bins the are dumped into the countryside with no knowledge of how to feed themselves, the disease taken to the country fixes is also a big issue in some areas.
I have no idea on the best bait for rabbits as I would get someone to shoot or ferret them as they are much more humane ways to go. A cage traps still scares the he'll out of them being trapped in an place there is nowhere to hide, approached by us and the hauled out to be killed. Not pleasant.
As for releasing squirrels they are terrible aggressive and dumping one into an unknown area already populated again causes slow lingering deaths and spreads disease from one population to another.

It is also illegal to release grey squirrels back into the wild as they are an invasive non native species.

 

[BBP]

Apparently I have a yard stoat doing battle with the rabbit population. In fact it decided to go on a killing spree this morning during bbp’s massage appointment. Bunny followed in hot pursuit by a stoat followed in hot pursuit by distressed bunny relatives. Horses were not impressed, bunny screams made for a lot of galloping around.
Had I realised we had a stoat I might not have just adopted a feral/stray cat, hopefully they will not interfere with each other.