It sounds like something from a Father Ted script, but it seems the current living situation in Ardpatrick, Co. Limerick is far from fictitious.
According to a report by local newspaper the Limerick Leader, the town is struggling to get to grips with a ‘rabbit infestation’.
Any gardening-enthusiasts out there will know how hard it can be to maintain manicured lawns and vegetable patches in the presence of slugs, so you can imagine what the surge in Ardpatrick’s rabbit population has done to local properties.
The Leader reports: “They are causing havoc to vegetable plots, flower gardens or anywhere they find something tasty…Foxes are failing to keep the population down, and they themselves are very plentiful.”
They also quote a local woman who recently came home at night to find a whopping 12 rabbits in her garden – wreaking all sorts of chaos amidst her greenery.
According to the paper’s ‘wildlife expert’, the surge in the rabbit population is down to a combination of the mild weather and the town's ‘hilly habitat’.
As for driving the creatures away, the expert suggests that urine and ‘bags of hair’ will serve as good deterrents.
All we can say is, thank God we aren’t dealing with this in our own gardens!
