Oh ya, they will rip some things out and eat the roots.
Gwen, why not fence in your garden to keep the rabbits out if they are such a problem?
Sebastopol Geese
Because we have 2.7 acres. The house sits on the back of the property and the property is ringed by trees but other than that, it's pretty much all landscaped.
We have it fenced for deer. We also have two large fenced areas for like a vegie garden or cut flowers or something. Both of these were orig rabbit fenced but it has somehow worn out. I had the biggest one redone a couple months ago and so all the bunnies have now gone into the smaller one and ate all the sunflowers I put back there. They didn't touch it last year as they were too busy eating the strawberries out of the big one. I'll have the smaller one redone too but they still can do a lot of damage in the rest of the yard and it limits me.
Also, there wasn't a lot of stuff planted here originally that they liked. It was mostly overgrown woody shrubs. We have pulled a lot of that out and are now putting in things like daylilies, dahlias, roses, annuals and perennials, bulbs. Stuff the bunnies seem to like! Well, I don't know about the dahlias as they haven't come up yet.
The bunnies seem to hang in certain areas. If I fence that area off or do something to deter them from that area, they'll move to another. I'd like them to move to the neighbor's yard!
Even if I fenced off the entire yard, I'd just be fencing them in as there's so much woods and shrubs ringing the property, they have their nests in there. We took up one bed that was the old 'herb' bed which was so overgrown it was just ugly woody branches. Anyway, when we did, we uncovered a bunny nest with 4 babies in it. Actually, there were 5 but our dog discovered the nest before we did. Then my husband made me cover it back up until the bunnies were old enough to leave the nest. So now we have four more bunnies!
Gwen
Have you considered getting a Jack Russell or Rat Terrier?
They would love to eat your rabbits.
We already have two dogs! I don't think my husband would let me get anymore. They love to eat rabbits (in fact I BUY rabbit to feed them) but the bunnies are too fast for them. I can't believe how fast those bunnies are! Plus, the bunnies can go in a straight line whereas the dogs have to go around obstacles. The golden catches something from time to time and but the lab has a bum leg (we're working on getting that fixed) and isn't up to her usual speed.
And then there're days like today (and all this past week) where it does nothing but rain so the dogs would much prefer to lie in front of the stove rather than be outside getting their lovely fur coats wet. (g)
I'm so sick of this rain but I'm going to go push seeds into the ground and get rid of all the seeds I didn't use back in Feb and Mar when I was starting seedlings.
A friend of mine uses male urine (her husband) to keep bunnies out of her yard. She says that works for her. So I immediately came home and assigned my husband and 3 sons different areas of the yard to be responsible for. It doesn't seem to be working for me tho. I also put out clumps of dog fur thinking that might detract them, but alas.
Blood meal used to work for me but I could only use it in the areas that have the fencing so the dogs can't get to it cuz they love to eat it all up which includes digging any plants nearby searching for every last morsel. For some reason, that didn't work this year in the one fenced area I put it. Something ate all those sunflowers down to the ground. Last year nothing touched them, so I don't get it. I put down two kinds of slug/snail bait too in case it was slugs instead of bunnies. I have done everything - urine, dog hair, blood meal, and slug bait - and every last one of those sunflowers are gone. Very frustrating!
Gwen
Gwen
gwen, I draped lightweight row cover (kind of like tulle but more flexible) over my young sunflowers and pegged it into the ground. It was the only thing that worked for me.
Gwen if its not one thing its another hey? We have a horrible time with Moles. They tear up our lawn and undermine plants. And then theres those Japanese #$%^&! Beetles... GRRRR!!!!
Its a constant battle for many of us.
Oh by the way, Terriers are very speedy and bred to kill varmints.
Have you tried preditor urine like Fox or Coyote? That might work better than human urine which I heard really doesn't work. I use to have a link to a website that sells preditor urine but you could do an online search and find it I'm sure.
No, but I'll look for that! Thanks,
Gwen