Wild Rabbit Control

Property owners in Meander Valley, it's time to tackle rabbit control head-on.

Invasive rabbits threaten agriculture, native species, and land health. Under Tasmania's Vermin Control Act 2000, landowners must manage rabbits on their property.

To help manage rising rabbit populations, Meander Valley Council urges landowners to use approved control measures.

Key Information for Property Owners

Educate Yourself:

  • Understand rabbit impacts on your property and the ecosystem.
  • Learn about rabbit habits and the signs of infestations. Small populations can be harmful by destroying endangered plants.
  • Get resources and advice from Biosecurity Tasmania here.

Implement Humane Control Measures:

  • Use humane, eco-friendly control methods.
  • Effective strategies include warren ripping, exclusion fencing, shooting, trapping, and biological control.
  • Control options: poisoning, removing cover, trapping, fencing, den ripping, shooting (where legal), and biological control.
  • For poison use, consult Biosecurity Tasmania to ensure safety and legality. It's important to note, some poisons require permits and notifications to neighbours.

Work Together:

  • The best results are achieved when neighbours work together to control rabbits across a landscape, rather than on individual properties. Talk to your neighbours to work out a coordinated plan.

Timing:

  • Rabbit control is most cost-effective in late summer and early autumn as breeding has generally paused at this time. Biological control and naturally harsh environmental conditions can also cause added stress on the rabbit population leading to longer-lasting results.

Report Sightings:

For more information and support, visit Biosecurity Tasmania here.

Further Information

To minimise the risk to your domestic rabbit, NRE recommends PAT: Protect, Avoid, Treat.

Protect your rabbit by regularly cleaning enclosures with a decontaminate that can remove RHD from equipment and surfaces, daily removing uneaten food, applying insect netting to cages. Insects, rodents, and humans can spread RHD.

Avoid contact with other domestic and wild rabbits. When introducing new animals to your domestic colony, be sure to treat and quarantine them.

Consult with your veterinarian to treat your domestic rabbit using approved vaccines for both RHDV1 and RHDV2.

More information can be found here.

Biosecurity Tasmania controls the release of Calicivirus as a wild rabbit control measure. More information and the most current updates on release sites and timing can be found on their website here.

No. RHD is an acute, highly contagious disease that only infects wild, farmed and domestic European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). All rabbits in Australia are derived from the European rabbit, so it’s important for domestic and farmed rabbit owners to protect and treat their rabbits.

There is no evidence that RHDV1-K5 – the RHD variant released by NRE in Tasmania to control invasive rabbit populations – infects other species of native and domestic mammals and birds.

Australia has tested for the virus in at least 33 representative animal species, domesticated and wild, native and feral and no infection signs were observed. Worldwide, 43 different species have been tested and the virus did not infect any of them.

No evidence of RHDV1 infection – the RHD variant released by NRE in Tasmania to control invasive rabbit populations – has ever been reported in humans.

Humans are known to be transmitters of the virus by unknowingly spreading it through clothes, shoes, hands and equipment that has been in contact with an infected animal or an area where infected rabbits have been.