rabbits; theyll take over the neighborhood if you're not careful. Y'all will wake up one day and realize you've been programmed to plant carrots and lettuce everywhere. You'll find yourself wearing those little rabbit ear headbands while you're in the garden. Maybe even tails. Playboy magazine subscriptions will soar all over town. Scary stuff.

Yes, these little critters did not read the reports that say they cannot live in the wild. They have dug holes large enough to break a leg. I can no longer walk through the field after dark. Walking a dog on a leash is more like taking a fast sleigh ride on the ice. (Oops, I had to first check to see if you lived in an ice-prone place. Yes, you do!)

We don't have a rabbit problem -- yet, but we have armadillos at both places. They are so destructive and can tear up a yard in no time at all. In FL, our side yard looks like it has been bombed -- holes everywhere. I HATE armadillos.

A short story about one armadillo. (Warning: gross factor)

When my parents retired and moved to Florida they were able to have a grass lawn to be proud of.
Enter one armadillo. Oh, what a mess that little guy made of the entire back yard.

Enter my brother, the hero, who loves antiques and guns.
Have a look at the gun in this link and see if you think this will have good results.
http://www.gunthorp.com/firear...

Good old brother decided to shoot the armadillo using an antique blunderbuss. Oh, what a mess.
Once the smoke finally cleared my parents could see that, yes, he had stopped further damage by the armadillo.
But the new problem was...whose gonna clean up the mess? Eeeeewwww

Your dog, Jack, is such a hoot! He seems to find everything. Good dog!

Armadillos are a part of nature here in FL as your parents found out. I've had one (or maybe several) in my yard from time to time and they do leave a bit of a mine field wherever they dig. But they are such cool critters, I've learned to let them be. They don't have any fear of humans either. Sort of like the large Sandhill Cranes that meander around my community!

Sounds like Rabbit Stew might become a very popular dish in your community! I am curious ... what color are the rabbits? White? Or all different colors?

So shall Jack be called the Rabbit Hunter?

We don't have armadillos up here in PA, but we have groundhogs and they can be very destructive too. Last year one of them burrowed under my veg garden fence (4 feet above ground, 1 foot below) and actually dug a DEN inside my veg garden. It was a disaster...he ate everything and there was no way to get him out. Finally, early this spring, I trapped him and relocated him to a remote park. I'm in the process of putting more underground fencing around the entire veg garden.

I guess we just have to learn to deal with wildlife; our area has really built up in the past 2 decades, and all those animals have to live somewhere.

Annie - I've had a mother rabbit dig a small den and raise her babies in my raised butterfly garden when I left the gate open at night. The babies were so cute. We don't have a wild rabbit problem here, as too many bigger predators hunt and eat them like bobcat, coyotes, and domestic pets.

Many people I know use hardware cloth in the 1/4" opening size to lay on the ground when they build a raised beds. It keeps critter from burrowing down as well as keeping them from tunneling up into a garden or vegetable bed. It can be expensive to purchase, but in the long run ... well worth the investment. Just make sure you have the edges under and out a few inches from the raised bed frame so the critters can't wiggle their way into your garden bed.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX...

Just to give you a heads up, I learned something new here on ATP about a month ago about relocating wildlife. I had no idea that good intentions often had tragic results until I read this article. Changed my view about wildlife in my yard and how to deal with them:
http://www.humanesociety.org/a...

These rabbits are not wild. That is an entirely different breed. These are pet bunnies which were released and are now feral.
People are feeding them and allowing them free passage.

In our neighborhood we do have a few cats that can hunt fairly well, usually mice/rats/squirrel, and one family of fox but...as they said in Jaws, "...gonna need a bigger boat".

Yes, I remember you saying the originals were pet bunnies released into the wild. So these rabbits are too big for foxes and other predators to hunt and kill them? I guess if there is plant food there, these bunnies will continue to breed and flourish. So being feral they can not be made into pets once again? If the food here in the USA gets scarce, it might be good to have them around for food for human consumption, perhaps? I have those big old white winged doves that I've been told might be good for eating should things become extreme. Which I don't know if that would ever happen in my lifetime. But it's good to know that I do have alternative options rather than starve to death .... just saying ...

When you say that the rabbits are not too big for foxes that is incorrect. We just need more foxes; there is only just one family of fox at the moment. We could use a few more decent hunting cats also. That might balance the population a bit.

This discussion is getting away from the 'fun' blog post and into the realm of 'ugly'.

Sorry. Just looking at the "other" side of having an overpopulation of a particular wildlife. (Not one I would easily consider either. I like fuzzy little bunnies! )