Part 2

TABLE I.--Lengths of open season for rabbits or hares.

----------------------+-----------+-----------+--------- | Beginning | Beginning | Length State or Province. | of | of | of open | open | close | season. | season. | season. | ----------------------+-----------+-----------+--------- | | | Months. Maine | Oct. 1 | Apr. 1 | 6 New Hampshire | do. | Mar. 1 | 5 Vermont | Sept. 15 | do. | 5-1/2 Massachusetts | Oct. 12 | do. | 4-3/5 Rhode Island | Nov. 1 | Jan. 1 | 2 Connecticut | Oct. 8 | do. | 2-3/4 New York | Oct. 1 | Feb. 1 | 4 Long Island | Nov. 1 | Jan. 1 | 2 New Jersey | Nov. 10 | Dec. 16 | 1-1/5 Pennsylvania | Nov. 1 | Dec. 1 | 1 Delaware | Nov. 15 | Jan. 1 | 1-1/2 Maryland | Nov. 10 | Dec. 25 | 1-1/2 District of Columbia | Nov. 1 | Feb. 1 | 3 Virginia | do. | do. | 3 Kentucky | Nov. 15 | Sept. 15 | 10 Ohio | do. | Dec. 5 | 2/3 Indiana | Apr. 1 | Jan. 10 | 9-1/3 Illinois | Aug. 31 | Feb. 1 | 5-1/30 Michigan | Oct. 1 | Mar. 2 | 5-1/30 Wisconsin: | | | 6 counties | Sept. 10 | Feb. 1 | 4-2/3 13 counties | Oct. 10 | do. | 3-2/3 6 counties | Nov. 1 | Jan. 1 | 2 Colorado | Oct. 1 | Mar. 1 | 5 California | July 31 | Feb. 1 | 6-1/30 British Columbia | Sept. 1 | Jan. 1 | 4 Ontario | Oct. 1 | Dec. 16 | 2-1/2 Quebec: | | | Zone 1 | Oct. 15 | Feb. 1 | 3-1/2 Zone 2 | do. | Mar. 1 | 4-1/2 Newfoundland | Sept. 20 | Jan. 1 | 3-1/3 Prince Edward Island | Nov. 1 | Feb. 1 | 3 Nova Scotia | Oct. 1 | Mar. 1 | 5 ----------------------+-----------+-----------+---------

In about half the States that have a close season for rabbits the laws permit farmers and fruit growers to destroy the animals to protect crops or trees. Such provision might well be incorporated in game laws of all States. For lack of it farmers have sometimes suffered severe losses, and not a few have been compelled to pay fines for trying to protect their property from rabbits. In States that protect rabbits it is well for the farmer to be acquainted with the game laws and in case of doubt to have a clear understanding with local and State game, wardens before undertaking to destroy rabbits.

MEANS OF REPRESSING RABBITS.

NATURAL ENEMIES.

Among the agencies that help to keep down the numbers of rabbits few are more effective than carnivorous birds and mammals. These include large hawks and owls, eagles, coyotes, wildcats, foxes, minks, weasels, dogs, and cats. Eagles, the larger species of hawks, and all the large and medium-sized owls make rabbits a great part of their food. From the standpoint of the farmer and fruit grower these birds and certain carnivorous mammals are far more beneficial than harmful. On the other hand, poultry growers and sportsmen regard them as enemies to be destroyed whenever possible. In the absence of such natural enemies, rabbits, as well as rats and mice, often become a menace to valuable crops. Indiscriminate slaughter of carnivorous birds and mammals should be suppressed whenever rodent pests are to be controlled.

HUNTING.

Hunting has been the most important factor in keeping down the numbers of rabbits in America. In some parts of the country the animals have been so reduced in numbers by shooting that sportsmen have invoked legislation to prevent their extermination. Shooting is undoubtedly the best method for hunting this animal. Ferreting is often impracticable, since our native rabbits do not habitually burrow; besides, the use of ferrets is forbidden by law in many States that protect the rabbit. Coursing with greyhounds is popular in the West, where the swifter jack rabbits are abundant. Cottontails are often chased with foxhounds, but the beagle is rapidly taking precedence as a favorite for hunting these animals, the gun being used to secure the game.

Where the country is sufficiently open for the purpose, the organized hunt, in which everyone who owns a gun is supposed to take part, is a good means of reducing the number of rabbits. These organized hunts are popular in the West, where they are also varied, in the case of jack rabbits, by what is known as the "rabbit drive." A large territory is surrounded by men and the animals are driven into a corral built of wire netting. While a few cottontails are sometimes included in the catch, these usually find refuge in open burrows or under cover of rocks or brush, so that this method is hardly applicable to them.

TRAPPING.

Rabbits are easily trapped or snared, and while these methods of taking them are slow, they are always feasible when cottontails infest woodlot, orchard, nursery, field, or garden. Many are caught in old-fashioned box traps set with a figure-4 trigger with cord attached to hold up the box lid.

An improvement on this familiar trap, widely used in the Middle West, and often called the Wellhouse trap, is a box 21 inches long and about 6 inches high and 4 inches wide (inside measurements) made of 6-inch fence boards, preferably old ones. The box is closed at the rear and has a wire door in front which swings inward from the top, a cleat at the bottom preventing its opening outward. The trap is set and the wire door kept open by a wire trigger-rod held in place by two staples in the top of the box. The trigger-rod is bent downward into a loop or figure 8 near the rear of the trap. As the rabbit enters the trap and crowds into the back part it presses against the loop, moves the trigger-rod backward and is imprisoned as the wire door is released and falls. Bait may be used but is unnecessary, since cottontails frequently take refuge in dark places from enemies or inclement weather.

The materials needed for making a Wellhouse trap are: Four boards 1 by 6, 21 inches long, for the sides; a piece 1 by 6, 8 inches long, for the back; a small cleat for the door stop; 28-1/2 inches of wire for the door; 22 inches of wire for the trigger; 4 small staples for hanging the door and trigger; and nails (fig. 3).

Mr. J. M. Walmsley recently sent to the department photographs and a description of a permanent rabbit trap made of sewer tile and used on his and other farms in Kansas (fig. 4). A 12 by 6 inch "tee" is set with the long end downward and buried so that the 6-inch opening is below the surface of the ground. Two lengths of 6-inch sewer pipe are then connected horizontally with the opening. Soil is placed over the joints to exclude light. The upright tile should be fitted with a tight removable cover--Mr. Walmsley uses old harrow disks for the purpose. The projecting end of the small tile is surrounded with rocks, brush, or wood, so as to make the hole look inviting to rabbits (fig. 5), and that they may appropriate the den as a place of concealment and shelter. A number of these traps in various places, and especially in the vicinity of the orchard, have kept Mr. Walmsley's farm comparatively free of rabbits. Rabbits occupy these tile traps, go in or out at will, and may be captured when desired. Whenever Mr. Walmsley visits his traps he is accompanied by a trained dog that locates the trapped animals. The cover is lifted from the upright tile and the rabbit captured by hand; if it bolts from the side opening it is caught by the dog. A short pole fitted with a 5-inch wooden disk may be inserted in the side opening to prevent escape.

These traps are especially suitable for open lands and prairies, where rabbits can not find many natural hiding places. Built on waste land, they may become a permanent part of the farm equipment and will cost nothing for repairs from year to year. Their first cost may be greatly reduced by use of second-grade or even broken tiles. If one wishes to poison rabbits, the baits may be placed inside these traps and domestic animals or birds will not be endangered. The Walmsley trap also furnishes an excellent means of obtaining rabbits for the table or even for market without damaging them by shooting.

POISONING.

Poison for killing rabbits has been used in the West with considerable success. Only in exceptional cases, however, is its use advisable in States that protect rabbits. The most favorable season for using poison is in winter or after a long drought in summer has made green food scarce. In some localities summer poisoning is interfered with by crickets or grasshoppers consuming the bait.

The following method is adapted for general use: Insert crystals of strychnine or powdered strychnine in pieces of apple or melon rind and place these baits at intervals along rabbit runs or paths. ~Take care to put the poisoned baits where children and domestic animals can not get them.~ Where no well-defined runs are visible in orchards, artificial ones may be made with a narrow drag or scraper. Along such runs or the dead furrows of plowed fields rabbits habitually travel. Baits may be placed on the ground or elevated on short sticks along the path, and should be looked after with care. ~Any baits left after poisoning operations are finished should be destroyed.~

For poisoning rabbits in winter or during droughts the following formula is recommended: Good oats, 12 quarts; powdered strychnine, 1 ounce; laundry starch, 1 tablespoonful; soda (bicarbonate), 1 ounce; saccharine, 1/8 ounce; water, 1 quart. Mix the starch with 1/2 pint of cold water. Pour this into 1-1/2 pints of boiling water and continue the boiling for a minute or two until the starch is clear. Mix the dry strychnine and soda in a small pan and sift it over the hot starch, stirring thoroughly to form a smooth paste. Add the saccharine and stir again. Pour the mixture over the oats in a metal tub, mixing until all the grain is wet. Allow the oats to dry before distributing. Not over a tablespoonful of the grain should be put in a single bait and this should be scattered considerably. A little alfalfa hay will help attract rabbits to the poisoned grain. This poison is recommended for use when snow covers the ground. It is effective against both cottontails and large rabbits.

Partly ripened heads of barley or wheat soaked in a solution of strychnine and saccharine or coated with the starch-strychnine solution just described have also proved effective baits for rabbits, but ~great care must be exercised~ in using them, as ~they are likely to be eaten by live stock~.

Cottontail rabbits may be poisoned in winter by baiting them with twigs cut from apple trees and dipped in or thinly coated with the starch-strychnine poison. These twigs are scattered along rabbit trails and are effective against both meadow mice and rabbits. They are less dangerous to domestic animals than grain baits.

BACTERIAL DISEASES.

The fact that when rabbits become excessively abundant in any locality epizootic diseases often destroy them in large numbers has led many people to expect that a micro-organism would be found which would afford a ready means of rabbit control. The Biological Survey receives many applications for such bacterial preparations. In reply to all of them it has been necessary to state that thus far all attempts to spread contagious disease artificially among wild rabbits have failed to give practical results.

PROTECTION OF CROPS FROM RABBITS.

Complete extermination of rabbits in any part of the United States is not desirable, even if possible. They should be reduced in numbers only sufficiently to secure comparative safety to crops, and before active wholesale destruction of the animals is attempted the possibility of crop protection by other means should be carefully considered. In many cases one of these means would probably be the more economical method.

RABBIT-PROOF FENCES.

When rabbits are abundant and the area to be protected is not too great, a rabbit-proof fence may profitably be used. Woven-wire netting is recommended for this purpose. This material is in general use, not only against the rabbit pests of Australia and Europe, but in our own country against both large and small rabbits. As our species burrow less than the European rabbit the requirements for rabbit proofing a fence here are not so great. Even the cottontails, when driven by hunger, will dig under a fence, but this may be prevented either by use of wire with close barbs in contact with the ground or by plowing a furrow against the lower edge. A netting of galvanized wire with 1-1/2-inch mesh and 2-1/2 to 3 feet high is a sufficient barrier against cottontails. Where snow is infrequent market gardeners and nurserymen use a 2-foot fence, but in the North they prefer to use a netting 3-1/2 feet wide, and to turn from 4 to 6 inches of the lower edge flat and cover it with soil. Netting made of No. 20 wire costs from 25 to 35 cents a rod. Heavier netting slightly increases the cost, but adds to the durability of the fence. Where lumber is cheap, a picket fence or one made of laths and wire is practicable. When deep snows fall and drifts form, fences offer no protection to crops against rabbits.

TREE PROTECTION.