Its time to break out my gun

[1-Old-Man]

Last edited Tue Jun 18, 2013, 10:21 AM - Edit history (1)

Only a lima bean lover could understand.

Last year I fired exactly one shot from a gun. I have several guns, mostly shotguns, but also an old .22 rifle that I keep out in a tool shed. Last year, about this time, there was a rabbit that was eating off the tops of my lima bean plants every day as they emerged. I replanted the beans half a dozen times and tried putting wire over them for protection and so forth before I resorted to the rifle. So that was the one shot I fired last year.

When I built the tool-shed, which is on a hillside, I whimsically attached a deck to the back of it. The deck is about 20 feet above and 100 feet away from the main garden, which itself is about 50 feet long. Our limas are planted at the garden's far end. The old .22 has a 4-power scope on it and resting on the rail of the deck, even with old myopic eyes, at 150 feet a person can put two out of three bullets through the same hole; .22 rifles are amazingly accurate.

I've replanted the limas twice so far this spring and last evening, around eight, I saw him out there. Long-eared gray bastard about a foot tall hopping right down the walkway toward the beans.

There is no real political message here. I am not advocating for either restrictions on guns or gun rights. All I'm saying is that damned rabbit has got to die.


On Edit: I had to split a sentence in two for it to read better. Sorry about that but I wrote this to be an example for my grand daughter on how to write a very short story that had to withstand public scrutiny so I wanted to get it right before I sent her the link. Hi Taylor!

Grandpaw.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. We are probably both going to get in trouble for this buuuuut . . .

[pipoman]

2. ..

Try spreading blood meal on and around your garden..rabbits tend to dislike this and it has worked for me..it's good for the soil too..

[1-Old-Man]

6. You know, someone suggested that to my wife just last week - for moles

We've also got a hell of a problem with moles. I understand they eat earthworms and if there is anything we have its earthworms. That's kind of the problem. I love to brag, we have probably the finest garden soil to be found anywhere in the state of West Virginia. That's because I made it. I built three stone walls along a hillside and then filled behind them 3-feet-deep with partially composted cow manure several years ago and those terraces constitute our garden. In total, over two years, I put in somewhere close to 20 truck loads of the manure and then it sat (heavily mulched) for another year before we started using it as a garden. Needless to say it is nitrogen rich and the periodic soil tests we have done always come back with the recommendation to add no nitrogen (or much of anything else for that matter). That's the problem with blood meal, its very heavy on nitrogen as I recall.

That said I still very much appreciate the advice. I'd rather run them off by applying something they don't like than have to kill them, but I do love my lima beans.

[pipoman]

13. I've heard of cayanne pepper too..good luck..

[brewens]

3. Careful there. That rabbit's got a mean streak a mile wide! n/t

[JustAnotherGen]

4. +1

[longship]

14. "Look at the BONES!"

[geckosfeet]

5. Another option: plant a smaller garden up the walkway for the bunny.

Problem is they will just multiply and consume more and more.

Trap the little bugger.

Or just kill and sell or use for meat if they are not too old and string. At least you know they were open range fed.

[1-Old-Man]

7. around here the beast is rarely referred to as a "bunny"

I'd put him in a stew except that even this early in the spring the local rabbits (which I have eaten a few of over the years) have what are the folks around here call 'warbles'. These are parasitic worms (don't know the real name for them) that during warm weather come to live under the flesh of the rabbit and are pretty nasty. Cats get them too. So you don't much want to eat a rabbit killed after it gets hot.

[geckosfeet]

8. That kind of limits your options then.

Hehe. Bunny. He he heh.

[Go Vols]

10. They are wolf worms

and I wouldn't eat a rabbit or squirrel with one in it.

[geek tragedy]

9. Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit . . . nt

[Warpy]

11. I agree, it's time for Thumper to buy the farm

Just make sure you're far enough away from other houses that a nervous neighbor won't turn you in. Then it's bunny stew for supper.

My problem back east wasn't rabbits, it was groundhogs. Those things go through gardens like hairy lawnmowers, eating sprouts and mature plants down to the ground, alike. For a while, habanero spray discouraged the little bastards, then they had babies and just went ahead and ate it. The babies were cute, but that didn't stop my smacking one I caught with a shovel and sending it 50 feet into the woods, best golf drive I ever did.

Once I found the den, I happened on a solution. I got some used Pampers from people with a baby. Those things, opened up and stuffed into one exit, encouraged the whole family to decamp and I never saw them around the garden again.

In your case, Thumper's finest hour will come as stew or fried rabbit. That way, you can get all those bean seeds back again, circle of life.

[DonP]

12. Had the same issue with my Bibb lettuce one year - a different solution to consider

The .22 is a short term solution...if oyu only have one rabbit to deal with. But we all know there is never just one rabbit.

But for a longer term fix, I had a friend tell me years ago that mixing a little big cat (Puma, Lion etc.) manure in with the regular fertilizer, would keep them far far away from your garden.

If you have a circus come to town or if you're near a zoo you can probably get some for free for the hauling, or you can actually find garden centers that can order it by the bag.

I tried it and didn't see another rabbit all year.

[Bake]

15. Kill it and cook it up!!

Any varmints in my garden get the same!!



Bake

[NickB79]

16. For me it was ground squirrels and gophers

Of course I live in Minnesota, the Gopher State, so big surprise I should have to fight them in my garden.

I work the night shift, so I'd be getting home right at sunrise during the spring and summer months, perfect rodent hunting time. I'd just go up to the 2nd floor of our house, open the window facing the backyard, and pick off any I saw in the garden. Using a Benjamin Trail NP air rifle with factory built-in silencer, all you hear is a whoosh as the .22-cal pellet flies. I killed a few DOZEN of those bastards. So far this year, I haven't seen any yet, and the garden looks great.

The gophers were a different story. They rarely come above ground, just leaving hills of dirt in the yard. I'd have let them be if they hadn't decided the roots of my fruit trees were the tastiest things ever. Last spring, I look out to see my Honeycrisp apple leaning 45 degrees in a strong wind; I pulled it out of the ground with one hand because the roots were GONE. I lost a Russian quince tree next, then a hybrid walnut, and finally an entire ROW of apricot seedlings I was growing to use for grafting rootstock. I figure I lost a few hundred dollars to those little bastards. The loss of my beautiful Northstar Cherry this spring was the final straw. I hate using chemicals, but I bought a big fucking bucket of poison peanuts and filled every gopher hole I could find with them. That was 2 months ago, and so far no more gopher mounds.