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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Rabbit zapper
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| steveh Newbie  Joined: 29/12/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4 |
Hello, I'm not an engineer, so please excuse dumb questions. The area I live in is infested by rabbits. Professional exterminators are expensive, and the varmints seem to know when I'm about with a gun. I have an idea for a device to electrocute them consisting of a 12V car battery charging a capacitor bank, the bank connected to two probes which if shorted by a rabbit would zap it. Am I right in saying that 12V would not supply sufficient charge to kill a rabbit and I would need to boost the voltage across the capacitors using a circuit similar to a camera flash gun ? Can anyone point me to a circuit design that would do the job ? For safety I would need a facility to discharge the cap, but I presume that's just a switch to short the caps through a resistor. Any advice appreciated. regards, steveh |
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| MOBI Guru  Joined: 02/12/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
@steveh How big an enclosure are you trying to protect? Quite likely a battery powered electric fence unit would do the job. I don't know how susceptible to electric shock a rabbit is but I have seen roos drop dead trying to get through/over an electric fence. Your hard part would be to stop the fence shorting out to the ground and or to stop the "varmints" crawling under the wire. Best of luck. You mightn't kill them but you certainly will discourage them from getting in. David M. |
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| steveh Newbie Joined: 29/12/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4 |
@Mobi, The area (50m x 50m) is surrounded by a ring-lock fence through which rabbits easily get through. It's electrified via a top wire to discourage cows pushing through. I really can't stop the rabbits getting into the garden so I need some sort of lure/zapper once they get in. regards, steveh |
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Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1344 |
We used to have big problems with rabbits,roo's and possums coming every night and eating my wifes herbs and since we got our dog (purebred Kelpie) no other animal is game to come close. 2 weeks ago Ruff(dog) went apeshyte and broke his chain and by the time I got outside there was one dead fox near the chook house. Now worries about batteries going flat and the roo's aint game to come close to the house area anymore. I do have a schematic stashed away for using a car coil that works off 12 volts so if thats any help I'll see if I can dig it up. Cheers Bryan |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Steve A .22 zapper is ideal for rabbits and they make good tucker as well, if in a built up area a air powered .22 zapper is good too. I had the same problem when I lived in Victoria and the only thing I found to keep them out was bird wire around the the garden patch, I did try a fox whistle worked by compressed air with timer and solenoid with some success but a bit of a task to keep going. You could make a few snares and thin them out a bit, this converts some of your garden to protein. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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raymond thomson Newbie Joined: 19/09/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 36 |
Hi Steve Here in rural QLD I had a simimlar problem a few months ago. The local council was very quick to respond with bait, advice and then Calisi virus with personal visits from the pest officer. It all worked very quickly and no sign of the rabbits since. Raymond |
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| steveh Newbie Joined: 29/12/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4 |
Hi Bryan and Bob, I do have a .22 zapper but the critters can smell it and disappear very quickly. Also it's a pain to always have to get it out of the safe etc and go looking. Bryan, if you can dig out that schematic it would help. I've been reading about boost converters but I'm not sure if that's the right device. I've done some work with Arduinos before and maybe I could do something with that. regards Steve |
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yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
Rabbits are an ongoing process. The bird netting is the best thing to start with, I use the wire that I can just get my little finger through and the rolls are about a metre tall. Clip it to the ringlock and peg the bottom to the ground, this will stop them till the get real hungry and start to dig under, then I lay a sheet down around the outside and peg it down . You can make individual hoops to go around young seedling trees. My oranges and lemons are getting a hammering ATM. Walking with a gun is pointless unless you are chasing them out of undergrowth the sound of a footstep and they are thumping and warning everybody, better to drive up to them or lay some grain for a week and then have a stake out. Once they start to dig warrens and hide holes close to the house you are in real trouble, they need to be ripped and/or filled in. Baiting is a good option but its a slow process training the rabbits to eat the food and it only works well when there is no green-feed for them. Once it rains the opportunity is gone. I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
Have you not heard of the "Bunny Buster" is a simple system of putting propane down the hole and igniting it, it burns all the oxygen out the air, then you fill the hole entrance in, they suffercate. Best not to use this method with dry grass, and in fire danger seasons. The original Bunny Buster was a metal lance on a hose you shoved down the hole some distance and a piezo igniter on the end of it. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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| MOBI Guru Joined: 02/12/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
The bunny blaster works ok if you can find the burrows/warrens. In our case, they are in dense scrub and not easily accessible. Don't over-do the propane as it can be a bit like standing on a land mine. David M. |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Your best bet might be a hyperactive dog. They love to chase things for fun. But the rabbits might not be laughing.... Cheers, Tony. |
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| steveh Newbie Joined: 29/12/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4 |
A hyperactive dog... That's a possibility, but the chances of the dogs getting injured themselves is pretty high. The rabbit gets through a bit of fence that the dog can't and the dog gets shredded by something...I'm not sure it's worth the risk, but thanks for the thought. I've decided to try a low piece of electrified fence between their burrow and where they feed, that's out of the way from people walking through. I'll see how that goes. |
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MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
steveh Pete suggested propane down the holes, then lighting it. DON'T LIGHT IT! Depending on how much you let down the hole, you could blow your yard up all around you. Propane is a heavier-than-air gas and its presence in the holes is enough to displace all the oxygen. The bunnies will suffocate underground and become instant fertilizer. Best wishes. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
What about carbon monoxide, car exhaust. It would be less traumatic on the rabbits, they would doze off then die, and its cheaper and less dangerous than an explosive gas. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| electrondady1 Senior Member  Joined: 12/02/2009 Location: CanadaPosts: 208 |
it seems a waste of good meat. a bit of wire can make a snare. |
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| Georgen Guru Joined: 13/09/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 462 |
Say we caught them in snares. How to decide if rabbit is OK for consumption? (There are lots of diseases, parasites and what not to make you sick. Prolonged cooking supposedly fixes parasites, but the rest?) George |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
Crew I got it! Print up several small posters of Elmer Fudd standing, holding his shotgun and stick them all around the place. The kwazy wabbits will see them and all hightail it! 
Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
If you are foolish than that might result, but you also need to remember propane needs oxygen to burn, and if the concentration of gas to air is too high it wont burn. All it takes is a little squirt of gas (2-5 seconds), no need to fill the hole with gas, a bit like lighting the BBQ when it lights with a Whoof and singes the hair on your arm. Its been around for about 20 years i know of and works well, its cheap and very portable. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
@ Pete Point well taken. When I put up the warning, I was remembering some Israeli hand grenades we used back in the day. They had a charge of liquid propane inside and about a 9-second candle. Once through a window, it landed, squirted propane all over the room, then a few seconds into it, it lit a small Roman Candle thingy and the entire house or room disappeared in a giant bang! It was a very effective mini-bunker-buster. Just trying to keep the crew safe is all. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| domwild Guru Joined: 16/12/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 873 |
I am using Rabbait, a poison you can buy without license. Then by hand or tractor I rip a line in the ground and sprinkle kibbled wheat, no one knew what that is so I got some sort of wheat from our feedstock agent. Kibbled is the recommendation. The wheat gets the rabbits used to the feed. Then sprinkle Rabbait along that rip and hope they die! Any disturbance of the earth attracts them. Of 10 rabbit traps I bought and they are illegal these days, the jaw ones, I only have 3 left as I managed to lose them somewhere or the roos dragged them off. An old Ag dep. pamphlet told me to get some gelignite, some detonators and fuse wire to blow the warrens and the fool that I am phoned the Mines Dep. after 9/11 (11/9) where I can buy detonators and fuse! National service taught me how not to lose a finger or hand putting the detonators in. He had a powder monkey's licence and would have done it for me but imagine the cost, the block is 450km away! Propane looks interesting, have to keep that in mind. Taxation as a means of achieving prosperity is like a man standing inside a bucket trying to lift himself up. Winston Churchill |
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