My new purse nets are losing rabbits!

I’ve been ferreting for years, but never had this problem of a rabbit hitting a net and not getting caught. What’s gone wrong?

Ferreting
EDWARD COOK
This is an easy one… in fact I’d hazard a guess right now and say the nets you’ve just bought are not the same size as your earlier ones – they’re smaller.

Too many net makers and ferreters wrongly think that just because a net covers a hole it will catch the burrow’s occupants.

That’s all well and good but we’re not out to catch the hole, we’re after a rabbit – and these tend to come in one size, unlike their front, side or back doors!

I tend to use 3ft 6in nets that are 18 x 2in meshes wide, a size that has plenty of rabbit catching bag to it.

Escapees are few and far between. The trouble is some net makers and ferreters are a tight bunch and tend to opt for cheapness over effectivness, which is a strange way of looking at things when you consider that every time a rabbit escapes that’s a £1 coin running away!

Put another way… would you walk down the street with a pocketful of coins knowing there was a hole in the lining simply because you are too tight to by some thread to fix it?

My advice is either learn how to make your own, or get your nets from an expert like Mick Mansbridge (02380 447662) – he’s one of the few people about these days who knows what he’s talking about, and makes decent nets that really do work well.