Calicivirus.
Letting nature do its work by using mosquitoes as calicivirus vectors to infect the feral rabbit population of Australia is a good thing.
Posted on 02/17/2010 7:22:44 PM PST by myknowledge
THE mosquitoes set to boom in Sydney after the summer deluges will be put to use helping cull a suburban rabbit plague.
Tens of thousands of rabbits have spread across northern Sydney, bouncing around Manly, Ku-ring-gai, Pittwater, Warringah, Ryde, Parramatta, The Hills, Hornsby and Lane Cove local government areas.
The State Government's Cumberland Livestock Health and Pest Authority has been waiting for mosquito and fly numbers to increase so that the insects can spread the rabbit-killing calicivirus.
Cumberland LHPA ranger and rabbit project leader Steve Parker said the authority had been catching rabbits to test that they were not immune to the calicivirus - also called rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD).
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytelegraph.com.au ...
Calicivirus.
Letting nature do its work by using mosquitoes as calicivirus vectors to infect the feral rabbit population of Australia is a good thing.
Hm
I’ve always believed that stingers would cure the bunny problem in Australia.
CCI Stingers.
I want to go there and spend a year solving their hare troubles....
No canned rabbit stew or rabbit jerky?
What’s a stinger? The .22 shells with BBs?
If you want to shoot rabbits you don’t have to go to Austrailia, you can come here. They’re going to be thicker than mosquitoes with all this rain.
I assume this virus is harmless to bitten humans and pets?
Sounds like a good idea. /s
Now how did the rabbits and other invasive critters get there in the first place? What is the saying of Good Intentions?
I've read on another forum of the problem with the wild bulls in Oz...shot on sight and used to bait the feral hogs.
It’s a .22 HP round that gets it done.
Where’s ‘here’??
Here's a pic of me, from last deer season;
Southern New Mexico.
Ha!
Nope. a 22 stinger cartridge is a 22 case made extra long so that when a 22 short slug is put into it, the overall length is equal to that of a standard 22 long rifle cartridge.
They are not to be shot out of older 22 long rifle firearms.
Nothing about those rabbits that a 22 K Hornet would not cure. ZZZZZap.
He actually had good water on his land (a rarity in those parts) so was able to utilize some of the surrounding BLM for light grazing.
When you say, "plenty of rabbits" go you mean jackrabbits,?
I pretty much don't care for just shooting them, and leaving them lay. Eating them usually aint so great, either...
Though I've no compunction against simply blasting ground squirrels & leaving them, in the Coastal ranges of California.
I wouldn’t meddle with Mother Nature like that.
Sounds like they’re asking for trouble.
Aye.
But not a universal round....
Not pet rabbits.
Yes, lots of jackrabbits and there are plenty of cottontails too, but they hang out around houses alot.
You shouldn’t worry about leaving them after shooting them, the hawks and the coyotes usually clean them up within 24 hrs. Just think of it as giving the wildlife a little welfare.
We’re down near the border. You could hunt on our farm and most farmers would just love you to come on down. We build fences to keep them out but they just find a way.
We have plenty of ground squirrels ourselves and way too many regular ones they just got started around here about 18 yrs. ago. You can even go coyote hunting.
(I learned the "Aussie Salute" during my visit to Broken Hill)
Having to " build fences to keep them out" sounds like hassle, and then have them find their way in still, doesn't sound good for happy making. Then again, if losses from rabbit nibbling can be kept to low enough level, it's probably a form of welfare for the coyotes, and raptors too.
I've noticed that the cottontails do indeed like to hang out around habitations. Safer from the coyotes, I take it. Particularly when there is stuff to hide under, or around.
Down near the border, hmmm. I've never been further South than I-10, passing through.
Mulling the various things over, one thing that comes to mind is the possibility of there being a mutually beneficial arrangement, in the way of something like a small, informal "Junior's" hunting club. (not that I'm proposing starting one personally -- just saying)
Under proper guidance of old-timer's (say, retired farmers, who might also have hunting & NRA backgrounds, etc., and would like to teach youths gun safety, marksmanship, and personal responsibility) the kids could fix or repair the fences a bit, in exchange for some limited access to the land.
Done in a low-key fashion, something like that could be a lot of fun, though perhaps not so much fun for the crop-poaching, wasically wabbits, in the short term.
It's heartening to hear that farmers down your way are open to the idea of having folks do a bit of light-duty hunting/varmint removal.
Most private lands in my own locale, or heavily posted (No Trespassing No Hunting). There are good enough reasons for those signs, though it is possible to gain access to some places, if one is polite, respectful, willing to take "no" for an answer without taking it personal, yet persistent in their efforts overall. Having something to offer, can help, too I've found.
My son and his son usually hunt every night in the summer and they still don’t put a dent in them. You wouldn’t believe the damage they can do, I would estimate that in the 35 years that we’ve been farming we have lost a million dollars to them.
I’d have to talk it over with my husband but we do have a place to park an RV with electric, water and septic about a half mile from our house on the south farm, there is even a tree there.
You've got me thinking, on the rest of the idea. "Even a tree", aah yes, that brought a smile! I'm still laughing. Not at you, but just from what little memory I have of S. New Mexico.
Looking South from the Wampum Trading Post vicinity, or say from near where I-25 meets I-10 it did always look plenty desolate, particularly looking South.
Each time I gaze towards Mexico there, I always think of the Mexican ranchhand who worked with/for that distant relative I had mentioned earlier. That man, walked, the whole way from Mexico. More than once.
I don't know if I could handle that type of walk. Maybe in my younger days...if it were in Fall or Springtime. Not MidSummer.
Living in Coastal climes, for more than the last 30 years has thickened up my blood. 40 degree F. is only slightly cooler than t-shirt weather, for me.
Most of the last 20 years, I've lived on a boat, more often than not. Acclimated to cool, even a bit cold at times...have worked day & night in it, at sea, year-round though that type of fishing is all but over with, now. I spent my youth in N. Central Tex. heat, though.
Too bad you don't live just a little bit outside of Datil, instead... sure do like that country up that way. Always try and stop in Pie Town, if I can. For the pie, of course.
Ha ha, I know our summers are brutal but we’re used to them.
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