Rabbits

I have so many rabbits! Would like to use fencing this summer. Can you give me ideas of what kind of fencing has worked for you?

Thank you for your help.

oh dear none LOL

Nope, just decided to feed them and hope they leave my lilies alone!

No fencing here but blood meal keeps them away.

I've had great results with a liquid blood product called Plantskydd. It is available at most Earl May stores and probably others as well. It has a long, between sprayings time and has kept both deer and rabbits at bay when used according to the directions.

spelling edit. and I had the box right here!

This message was edited Jan 17, 2008 11:39 AM

I second the Plantskydd. It works great for deer and rabbits.

You guys should add it to Garden Products.....

http://davesgarden.com/products/gp/add.php

Done!

Great! Thanks so much.

Of course an Owl and or an Eagle will work well with rabbits. I believe that is what eradicated them for me this winter. I haven't seen one in a few weeks now. This guy was sitting in the tree and the Golden Eagle was in the field.

Thank you all for your input on my pesky rabbits. Someone told me about bloodmeal but they said it would really attract skunks! I have the eagles but they're fishing.

It's snowing and I'm worrying about next summer! Thanx

We have skunks all over, but I have never noticed them or any signs of them disturbing anything I have sprayed with Plantskydd. The skunks do tear up the sod looking for grubs.

Raccoons like grubs too. They are hungry....

We mostly get racoons in the horse barn trying to get into the horse feed :-)

Not many skunks here - just a few of the human type skunks.

I guess I'd eat horse feed before grubs, wouldn't you?

Human skunks...the worst kind...

That was such a turn off on the first Survivor show! The fact that they were told not to just swallow them but to chew them!!!! Yuck!

oohhh, and to think I missed it.... ;)

Sweet feed ....grubs.....no contest, I'll take the sweet feed!

I have the 'pillagers'. They keep all critters off the hill my house rests on. The larger one is Buster and Mandy is the one with white markings. They have been known to lay down in my garden beds when it is hot out.... but they allow no critter near them... lol...

This resident feral cat keeps our critters at bay. The only thing left to fret about is the deer, she doesn't do too much on that front.

Starr - that's 2 happy lookin' doggies!

Magnolia - that is a very purdy feral.... she looks content so the pickings must be good.

She's sweetie. I've adopted many of her kittens out, now I just need to trap her and get her spayed. She does good work, and shows up for her reward every night and every morning, especially this time of the year, when food is more scarce. She's just used to us now.

We call her Mrs. White Paws.

This message was edited Jan 17, 2008 2:33 PM

I still say fencing is the only sure way to keep rabbits away.

For my gardens that I only fence in the spring and early summer, I just use the welded wire rabbit fencing - about 24" high with smaller openings on the lower part for smaller/baby rabbits.

My big garden I keep fenced all year because I have yummy woody plants in there that rabbits would eat in the winter. So fencing is 4ft because of snow drifting. Unfortunately, they don't make rabbit fencing 4ft high(to my knowledge). I use the regular welded wire fencing. Small rabbits can get through if they really want to, but they seldom do. Never in winter, maybe once every other year in summer. Be sure not to leave the fence gate open though. Just about every time I have, I also find a rabbit inside the garden.

Do you bury the fencing at all? My sister has rabbit issues, and before they sunk the fencing down a couple of inches into the ground, the rabbits would manage to wriggle/dig their way in. She ended up encasing her Lady Slippers in chicken wire to keep them from nibbling the blossoms off before then even opened. It allows the blossoms to have a normal life span, but it's mighty difficult to enjoy them through the chicken wire.

Gratefully, I have very few rabbits because one of my cats is a very good hunter.

We put two fences around the vegetable garden and buried both of them: the rabbits find a way to get in. I think they must take leaping lessons from the deer.

That's the funny thing - rabbits don't jump fences. That's why 24" is ample. I use the rabbit fencing for temporary fencing in spring and early summer. In fact, it just sits atop the grass. My permanent fence is in the ground only about 4-5 inches. I wonder if rabbits are like deer in that once they establish a feeding pattern, nary a soul can change it. I guess my rabbits are rather benign.

Once when I was walking in the woods here, a pair of woodchucks came across me - litterally. The must have been in their mating ritual, as they never noticed me, even though both leaped right across my path not 4 feet away. Now, have you ever thought a ground hog could leap 3-4 feet in the air? Well these did, and continued to do so all through the woods without skipping a beat - leap after leap after leap . . . I'm not sure, but I doubt they would jump a fence either. Anyone have input on this theory?

No input on the woodchuck rituals but the bunnies here behave the same way.

Shot gun and electric fence :*)
One rabbit did jump my 29" fence around my new lily bed this winter. There were tracks in the snow and the bottom is stapled to wood. I am going to start trapping to maybe keep the spring breeding population down. I know a hopeless cause.

My DBIL has been known to use a .22. But....since they live IN TOWN that can be a bit difficult. So, he opens the window in the upstairs bathroom that opens onto the garden....and the barrel glides out....one shot....and it quickly glides back in. Very effective, but very illegal.

sounds like my house LOL got chipmunks also
BY BY
g.

Andrew, what was the rabbit going after that it would want to jump a fence? Certainly not your lilies. Was it being chased by something/one? Yes indeed, rabbits would definitely jump then. I've witnessed that too; and no matter what your fence height was with the snow.

Or as I said, maybe I just have more benign rabbits.

I am very glad that I do not have a bunny problem.

Rabbits love to eat my lilies. I almost gave up growing them...

This message was edited Jan 19, 2008 8:17 AM

I have bunny problems too, but dang! if the squirrels aren't even worse for stealing my one-day-away-from-being-ripe toamtoes.

The dang crows were always dive bombing our tomatoes, taking one bite and moving on to the next one. Finally DH put up mesh screening around the tomato area on the inside of the vegetable garden using copper piping as support. It works.

Nice job pirl, and transportable too (to another part of the garden).

We use to love to get dive-bombed by crows when we were kids . . .

My dad was a self-employed roofer and while removing leaders and gutters to install new ones he'd ofen get attacked by Blue Jays and he'd arrive home with blood dripping from his head and all over his clothes. That was very scary for a five year old to see! They'd attack when he'd unknowingly get too close to one of their nests.

That sounds little too close to that movie 'The Birds'. I saw sneak peek of that movie as a kid and I had nightmares for weeks.