- Poisoning
- Hunting/Shooting
- Warren Ripping
- Biological Control
- Myxomatosis and Calicivirus (RCD, RHD, RVD)
Warren Ripping
Warren Ripping is also known as burrow destruction. There are many techniques used in ‘ripping a warren’. A horse, truck, or tractor pulls a plough through the warren, therefore destroying the warren, its tunnels and killing the rabbits. Another method is covering the entrances and outside of the warren with dynamite and setting it off. These are effective ways but these practises are expensive, too time consuming, and too labour consuming.
Biological Control
Immunocontraception is in the experimental phase, currently. The effect would be achieved by inoculating viral vectors (organisms that carry disease from one creature to another) with the immunocontraceptive. Because these vectors must consume blood frequently in order to live, the immunoconraceptive that they carry would ultimately be passed to the rabbits when the vectors prey upon these creatures, thereby resulting in sterilisation among a large proportion of rabbits in Australia. But in order for this to work the vector must infect a large percentage of dominant female rabbits.
Possible vectors that are already used for the transfer of Myxomatosis from rabbit to rabbit are the Spanish Flea, the European Rabbit Flea and mosquitoes. The CSIRO is developing the myxoma virus as the possible virus to carry the immunocontraceptive.