POISONING RABBITS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18761, 15 July 1924, Page 8

POISONING RABBITS.

OFFICIAL METHODS FAIL.

USE OF STRYCHNINE.

COMPLAINT FROiM WAIKATO.

There is urgent need; for settlers, with the exception of the vißry small minority who have formed rabbit boards, to give serious attention to tlra rabbit pest which is probably as destructive to production as blackberry, and theire is also need for the Department of Agriculture to redouble its efforts in combating the menace.

The department continues to adopt a role in the nature of that of a policeman, when it should fill the part of " guide, counsellor andl friend." Admitting the need for discretion in the administration of the Act, particularly when many farmers are on the verge of bankruptcy, the department should do much more than follow its routine in regard to the rabbit nuisance. For instance, it should take every means of from the housetops, the amazing success that has attended the work of the rabbit boards established in the Te Awamutu district. If it is necussary in the interests of production that instructors in agriculture should move about the various districts placing expert knowledge at the disposal of farmers, it is also necessary that officials should go about rabbit-in-fested districts instructing farmers in the best means of destroying the pest. Leaflets are available giving the best methods of poisoning, but the personal touch which is so vitally important in most cases, is lacking. A Waikato resident informed the Herald yesterday that he had carried out the directions for strychnine poisoning to the letter, but had failed except in one instance. He has heard of others whose poisoning has failed, and also of men who have had success, one of whom, he understands, has a secret method of preparing the poison for which he paid £5. If there are any secrets about the matter they should be known to the department, and should be broadcasted.

Another man, now resident in Auckland, states that some years ago rabbits suddenly disappeared from a large station near Wellington, where they had been very thick. The theory of laymen was that a disease had wiped out the furry population, but he understands that nothing was done by the department to determine the cause. He thinks that possibly the chance of obtaining very important knowledge on the question of rabbit destruction was lost.

In regard to the Waikato resident, his object is to destroy the rabbits and at the same time get their skins, for -which present values are high, prime winter buck skins which weigh heavily, being quoted at 7s a lb. One of the poisons which practically kill the rabbit on the spot is strychnine, and in the hope of killing the rabbits before they could reach the fern or their warrens he used it exactly according to the official directions. First of all he used the method of treating oats with molasses and strychnine. For two or three nights he laid in spade spits, boiled oats sweetened with molasses and then laid the same class of bait treated with strychnine, and considering the number of rabbits in the vicinity the kill was good. Never again, however, have the rabbite taken oat poison. Then he tried the method of using carrot bait. First he put out carrot sweetened with sugar, which was readily eaten. Then he laid the same bait with the addition of strychnine. Practically every one of the 120 baits was eaten, but only 11 rabbits were found dead, and some of them were 200 yards away. Possibly, he says, others died in the scrub, but seeing that strychnine is supposed to kill almost instantly, this should not have been. He opened several of the rabbits, and found that they had eaten surprising quantities of carrot.

His opinion is that the moisture in carrots, even those not freshly pulled, combined with that of the. dissolved sugar, is sufficient to wash the powdered strychnine off the bait. He also tried the method of which he heard privately of soaking the carrot in a solution, of muriatic acid and sweetening with sugar. He laid poison where grass was plentiful, and where it was not., but the result was the same. He said that many others besides himself would be glad to hear, of methods which had been successful.