The owners of more than 50 lifestyle blocks at Queensberry, near Wanaka, have agreed to work with the Otago Regional Council to deal with their rabbit problem.
Rabbit numbers on some of the blocks have risen to spectacular levels over a favourable summer breeding season.
Regional council senior field adviser Peter Preston, of Wanaka, yesterday said all the lifestyle block owners, on land covering 280ha, had agreed to a poisoning programme this winter using carrot laced with Pindone.
Another 2000ha of farmland above the lifestyle subdivision will have carrot laced with 1080 or Pindone applied by helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft.
Mr Preston said not a lot of control work had been done at Queensberry for several years.
''The land is reasonably rabbit-prone and it bounces back quite quickly after control work.''
Mr Preston said ''one or two'' lifestyle block owners averse to the use of poison had been given the opportunity to get their rabbits under control by other methods such as shooting and fumigation. However, they would join the poisoning programme in July or August if their efforts had not succeeded by then.
''There is a certain amount of anti-toxin feeling out there but when rabbits get to a certain level it's the most efficient way of doing it. And Pindone is very safe for domestic animals and stock.''
Mr Preston said most of the ''angst'' about toxins related to 1080, which would not be used in the subdivision.
All Queensberry owners accepted something had to be done.
Mr Preston said growing resistance to using rabbit calicivirus for killing and a lack of rabbit-proof fencing aggravated the problem.
Some property owners were building fences and planned to keep on top of their rabbit numbers once the poisoning programme was completed. Those who did not could expect to have the same problem again in about three or four years.
Mr Preston said all costs of the poisoning programme would be met by the affected landowners at a rate of between $120 and $160 per hectare.
Mr Preston will meet lifestyle block owners at Queensberry on Saturday to explain the poisoning process.
