Rabbits having a buffet in my garden

Darned ole rabbits. They have eaten all of my cucumber blooms and tiny cukes before they even get started. Same with my melons and cantalopes. We can see them running back and forth to the garden each morning and evening and our little dog has a good time trying his best to catch one, but they just keep comming back, and he's not making much of an impression on them. Maybe they'll eat enough that they finally get so FAT they can't run so fast.

What does everyone else do for rabbits ?

Mostly, they seem to be preferring the clover in the back lawn and under the fruit trees to anything in the garden this year. I do prune back my mints and scented geraniums every so often, chop up the clippings, and scatter them on the garden.... seems to confuse their little bunny noses!

I have an old wooden trap that my grandpa made, and we've relocated 4 or 5 bunnies this year. Last year, we took a couple dozen of them for rides in the country, but we don't have nearly as many this year. I think our neighborhood has acquired a feral cat or two, and that has reduced the rabbit population.

Hi PeggieK,

We have rabbits and using poultry fencing with a one inch opening has worked. We only have it at a two foot height (you may need higher if you have jack rabbits), and one foot into the ground angled out away from the garden. They seem to prefer to dig vs. jump over it. Jack rabbits have a different personality so this may not work with them. I like the two foot fence as I can step over it without installing a gate. There are repellents you can buy but I have no experience as to how good they work. Hope this helps.

A little blood meal sprinkled around the plants after each rain does wonders to deter rabits.

I've shopped for repellents, I just have one opinion on them. They cost upwards of 16.00 a bottle. I could buy a lot of vegetables at the farmers market for $16.

Has anyone tried human urine? (I said "eeeewwww" but my sister just said "grow up").
They offer stuff like fox urine (expensive and you have to reapply after rain) but I was concerned that my male dog would go nuts and mark everything himself and then it would be urine fest. I suppose no sensible rabbit would want to join that party. I don't think I'd want to eat vegetables from that party either ; )

I was thinking that a Zen approach might be the way to go...plant extra for the wildlife. I'm not sure wildlife knows how to share, that may be a problem.

I tried human urine and it didn't work for me as far as I could tell. I was told it had to be male urine. Since I have a husband and 3 boys, I assigned them each an area (or two) of the yard. LOL We are in a private area so they can go out there and pee to their heart's content and no one will see. The husband was willing to cooperate but the sons will not.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, dh's contribution didn't seem to do much good so we abandoned that idea. :(

Gwen

I'm right there with you. Bunnies left and right when I go outside. They've been keeping my bean plants short. The other seedlings I can toss row cover over to protect, but the beans are under teepees. Our cat catches a bunny every week or so (here's to stepping on a discarded gall bladder in your bare feet, sigh), but you know that won't put much of a dent in the rabbit population. Looking into the blood meal, as the hot pepper wax ain't doing much. I think my only other option here is fencing the veggie garden.

Don't use the blood meal if you have dogs. It does keep the bunnies away wonderfully but then the dogs have a field day digging up everything in site getting to the blood meal.

Gwen

This is the best "recipe" for rabbit problems I have found.

Rabbit Stew


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
Rabbits
1 large can tomatoes -- mashed
1 onion -- chopped
Curry powder -- to taste

Parboil rabbits, cut in pieces. Drain and dry. Then brown the pieces with sal
t and pepper to taste. Next prepare mixture using tomatoes, onions, curry powd
er, salt and pepper. Add browned rabbit pieces to mixture and stew at low temp
erature for 3 to 4 hours. Thicken juice with flour and water for the gravy. M
eat will fall off the bones.
Goes great with fresh Veggies!

Gwen...LMAO! Love the story, sorry the pee thing didn't work. Thanks for letting me know about the blood meal. I have 2 big dogs that would wind up being a bigger problem than the bunnies.

Nick...eeewww. Although it is kind of Zenish if you eat the bunny and not just kill and waist it. Still, eeeewwww. (how many do you need to feed a family of 4?)

My daughter works for a dog groomer. She says there is a lady who comes in each year and asks for a trash bag of dog hair. She puts it on her garden and says it keeps the rabbits out.

Our daughter brought me a bag full about a month ago, and I foo-foo ed the idea and threw it away. Guess I'll humble myself and ask for another. At this point, I'm ready to try about anything............what's to lose ?

We have a trap, but they seem to be smart enough to know not to go in it.
We've set it out many times, but catch nothing. We baited it with all the goodies they seem to be enjoying from the garden, but they just hop on bye on their way to the buffet.

Be careful with bonemeal then too. My dogs will leave bonemeal alone if I mix it into the soil underneath a plant before I plant it. And it's better if they*don't* see me doing that too. But even if I mix bloodmeal and it's under the plant, they scent it out (and these dogs do not have particularly keen noses) and dig up anything it's in.

But bonemeal on the surface, they will eat and then continue to disturb the plant it's around.

They've also been known to come into the greenhouse and get into a bag of bloodmeal. I didn't even bother to replace it after they ate the last bag. I should get some more, tho, as I do have areas that are fenced off from the dogs and I could use it in there. Oh, wait, those areas are also fenced off from the bunnies, too, so doesn't really matter.

Here's one thing I have found successful with bunnies, altho some may not like this. I have those really prickly weeds. I don't know what they're called but they are even more prickly than berry vines and roses. They go right thru my toughest gloves when I pull them. But if I let them grow up around the plants the bunnies like, the bunnies will leave the plant alone. Of course, you then have the weeds, too, but sometimes all it takes is to let the plant get to a certain point growthwise and then the bunnies leave it alone too.

Gwen

Peggie, I have done the dog hair thing, and actually continue to do it whenever I brush the dogs (we have LOTS of dog hair) but I can't say it works great. It may work for a while but they get the idea pretty soon. And we even have the dogs to back it up, who DO chase the bunnies and occasionally catch and kill one (I'm the only family member standing there encouraging the dogs), but even that isn't as much of a deterrent as I hoped it would be.

Gwen
(If I'd known I'd be putting large clumps of dog hair all over the place, I would have picked a chocolate lab instead of a yellow!)

Seen on one of the garden shows human hair works, suggested getting clippings from a local hair dresser. I have no idea if it works. Same show said Irish Spring soap works for keeping deer from eating your plants and that didn't work for us. Worth trying the hair if you can get it for free.

Also can check out:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7447.html Just one note: Electric fencing was not been effective in our case.

I just got an advertisment to purchase this "fix all your garden problems" book. They mentioned about spreading used kitty litter around (not near) vegies to keep bunnies away...any thoughts?
I think you'd have to remove the, huh hum, "solid pieces" or again you would have a dog problem to go with your bunny problem. Again...eeeewwww!

I am wondering what red or cayenne pepper would do to rabbits and such if sprinkled on the plants.....anyone know?

We use fine wire fencing or chicken wire bottom 2 feet, dogs outside the wire guarding the perimeter and cats all over the place. Fence is 6 feet tall in back which keep the deer out too. However, the raccoons will sneak in when the strawberries are ripe.

I don't know what varmints I have, although rabbits are possible culprits. The only thing I've found to have any effect is hot pepper wax. It doesn't keep the insects away, although I bought it as an insect repellent, but my plants are less chewed on since I started using it.

Shake-Away doesn't work. I think my varmints LIKE garlic.

Neem oil doesn't do a thing to curtail flea beetle invasions. I've lost every single broccoli sprout and plant to flea beetles. Safer and Bug B Gone don't work, either.

I still do have some sprouts and leaves chewed on and stripped, even with the hot pepper wax. These varmints seem to like spicy food. Tonight I accidentally dribbled a bit of hot pepper wax on my finger. My hands are calloused and rough because of all the karate I do, but after a minute or two that sucker started burning! I came in and washed it off with some odor neutralizing Soft Soap, but it still took a while for the burning to die down.

We put up rabbit fencing around our garden and it helps. It isn't so high that you can't step over it. (I was supposed to get a gate but that is apparently in the "jobs to be done someday" folder)

But it does keep out the bunnies.. Chicken wire is less expensive and just as effective. We have an advantage of having timbers all around the perimeter of the garden so we didn't have to worry about the digging under part.

Re: Nick and Sunnysky
rabbit solutions. I thought practitioners of zen were vegetarian. Here is an old recipe for swamp rabbit a man in near Red Bay, Alabama told me as his childhood home was about to be demolished by TVA. This is his memory of his parents cooking swamp rabbit in the fireplace of their kitchen (this was before stoves). Start a good fire and let it burn down to the coals. ( I would wait for winter to do this. Not in 100+ heat.) Skin and clean the rabbit. Put it in a greased brown paper bag. Bury the bag under the coals and let it cook all night long until the meat pulls easily off the bones.

Why not just plant some clover for the bunnies on the back 40? That sounds like a zen approach to me.

I heard of a similar recipe, but it was for chicken.

Steal and kill one chicken.
Put wet clay around it.
Dig a hole.
Bury the chicken.
Light a fire over the buried chicken.
Sit around all night looking innocent while people stomp around looking for the chicken thieves.
When the excitement and the fire dies down, unearth chicken, break open clay (which has kiln hardened by this time).
Eat chicken.

I tried kitty litter ( solid pieces and all) poured down a gopher hole to keep gophers out. It did for a day or two, but pretty soon they dug other holes. What worked was when I finally trapped a gopher and put its dead body in one of their main runways. I haven't had any more gophers, but now the chipmonks have taken over their holes. We have rabbits, but apparently the neighborhood dogs and cats keep most of them away. I guess if you live in the country, you have to deal with varmints.
By the way, lots of Zen Buddhists are not vegetarians. It is mainly American Buddhists who are Americans -- at least in my experience.

You people are way too funny. It's a wonderful thing to get up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee and sit down at the computer and giggle while I check DG.
Thank you

I get the feeling that natural preditors are far more effective than a suburban gardener like my self. And by the way, I'm not Buddhist (not that there's anything wrong with that) and I'm not vegetarian, I was just thinking of a more peaceful approach.

We be funny alright. We really get funny when something gets to our veggies before we do. I once heard an old man say, "Yep, people are funnier than anybody." I think he was right.

It can be rather humerous to hear all the ways we "smart" humans TRY to outsmart dumb animals and bugs. Most of us who are gardening enthusiasts will try all kinds of crazy ideas to be able to bite into that first juicy tidbit from the garden each year. Sometimes I think it must turn into a contest of will..............who's going to win this round, me or the varmint !!!

Brings to mind the movie 'Caddy Shack' with Chevy Chase. LOL

Spray your veggies with a mixture of 1 cup milk(at least 2%) 1egg white and 1 gal. of water. Seems to work great for rabbits and deer. Smells bad to them but you will not notice. washes right of after picking so re-apply after rain(that will be sometime in Oct. here in Arkansas).

Nick, I'm going to try this. Thanks!