Hi Bronwyn - where I live we have a bit of a rabbit plague at the moment. A couple of years back we ripped all the existing warrens on our place, which kept them down until recently, when they established a new warren. Over the last few weeks we co-ordinated our efforts with neighbouring landholders to fumigate all the warrens in our vicinity, as an alternative strategy to ripping, which simply disburses the little buggers to the next property.

The gas pellets are available over the counter at the co-op, and are quite safe for humans if handled correctly. It's not a nice thing to do, but if you've ever seen a rabbit plague you'd realise what damage they can do, and at any rate we're required by law to control vermin. I don't think that gassing rabbits is any crueller than poisoning (which also risks killing other animals) or shooting, and it seems to be quite an effective way of destroying an entire warren of rabbits in one go.

With rats and mice we're stuck with poisons and traps, which are literally a necessary evil when controlling them around the house and sheds. I love living in the country, but there's no getting away from the fact that the bush is often a cruel place. Animals certainly aren't very nice to each other in the wild, and controlling vermin is part and parcel of living in the country.

Anyway, as I said, it's certainly not something I do to 'chill out', although I do have friends who like nothing better than going out and shooting feral rabbits, foxes, pigs, donkeys, goats, deer, dogs, cats etc as their weekend diversion. These animals don't belong in our environment and only exist in the wild by poaching the habitat of native critters.

P.S. for the benefit of the harpy troll who will undoubtedly pounce, I'm quite aware that rabbits are lagomorphs rather than rodents - but who's heard of lagomorphs? I think of them as big rats anyway.

Thanks CJ.

I can see you're between a rock and a hard place when it comes to controlling vermin.

Growing up in arid wheatbelt country, yes, I'm very familiar with both rabbit and mouse plagues. We only ever resorted to killing them though when numbers got out of hand, which happened occasionally more than regularly. I don't know much about gassing, but we always used traps in preference to baiting. I know they're just as cruel, but they're less likely to impact on the environment and on other animals.

Yes, I realise there are no easy answers when it comes to controlling pests. I'm pleased to know though you don't really have the gung-ho attitude implied by your comment that I ought to see the 'nasty things' you do to feral rodents. I'll straighten up the halo again. :)

My son works in this area in the DPI and has had to acquire a gun licence as a result. So as you can imagine I'm mentally grappling with these issues fairly regularly. As the main person to encourage him in studying environmental science in the first place and as a mother who made sure his early play didn't include guns, I now have to accept that he shoots as part of his job description.

Dear CJ,

A friend emailed me this joke that I thought
you may enjoy seeing as it's to do with fishing
(sort of):

A young Aussie lad moved to London and went to
Harrods looking for a job.
The manager asked, "Do you have any sales experience?"
The young man answered, "Yeah, I was a salesman back in
Dubbo."

The manager liked the Aussie so he gave him the job.

His first day was challenging and busy, but he got
through it.
After the store was locked up, the manager came down
and asked, "OK, so how many sales did you make today?"
The Aussie said, "One!"

The manager groaned and continued, "Just one?"
"Our sales people average 20 to 30 sales a day."
"How much was the sale for?"
"One hundred and twenty four thousand, two hundred
and thirty seven pounds and 64 pence." replied the Aussie.

The manager choked and exclaimed, "One hundred and
twenty four thousand, two hundred and thirty seven pounds
and sixty four pence! What the hell did you sell him?"

"Well, first I sold him a small fish hook, then a
medium fish hook, and then I sold him a new fishing rod."
"Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he
said the coast, so I told him he would need a boat,
so we went down to the boat department and I sold him
that twin-engine Power Cat."

"Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would
pull it so I took him down to car sales and I sold him
the 4x4."

The manager, incredulous said, "You mean to tell me
a guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold
him a boat and a 4x4?"

"No, no, no... he came in here to buy a box of tampons
for his lady friend and I said..."
"Well, since your week-end's buggered, you might as well
go fishing!"

Foxy
I can see I am preaching to the converted. Writing can be a challenging but worthwhile exercise and worth the hair pulling. :)

“Cornflower - go away, you waspish old sourpuss”

Oooooooo, thatththththththth deththththththththththththththththpicable!