Young Wild Rabbit by Gidzy
Rabbits are cute and furry and so fun to watch. What are you going to do though if they’re being a nuisance?
Some kind of rabbit repellent could come in handy. But do these kinds of products work? What should you do to stop rabbits eating your plants?
I’ve got some answers for you.
Go Eat Dandelions
This cute bunny is eating dandelions. Great! Who would complain? Wild rabbits also eat grass, though they’re not very effective lawnmowers, sadly.
For most of us I think our goal is rabbit redirection. While I draw the line at bunnies who want to destroy plants I’ve paid for, or vegetables I’m planning to eat, I don’t want war on rabbits, I just want to move them along.
Rabbit Baits and Poisons
According to Kansas State University, “There are no poisons or fumigants for rabbits registered for use in Kansas.” Furthermore, even if poisons are legal in your area and you choose to use them there is an extreme risk of you inadvertently poisoning another animal which finds and eats a poisoned rabbit (dogs included). Please check with your local state extension office or wildlife control specialist if you feel that poisons or fumigants are necessary.
Baits can be used to get rabbits into traps. I am not going to cover the use of traps here. If you want more information on traps and how to build humane traps, a useful publication, written by Charles Lee, Wildlife Specialist, is available from Kansas State University called Cottontail Rabbits: Urban Wildlife Damage Control. Clicking that link will download the pdf file to your computer.
Rabbit Repellents
There are two types of rabbit repellents: area repellents (applied to the soil or plant containers) and contact repellents (applied to the plants). Substances which repel rabbits include the following:
- soaps – applied to the soil
- ammonia mixtures – applied to the soil
- garlic – planted around vegetable beds or applied as a mixture
- bloodmeal – applied to the soil
- pepper – applied to the plants or soil, usually along with garlic
- predator urine – applied to the soil
Some of the repellents smell bad after application. Many repellents need to be reapplied after rain or after a period of time – check the label.
Repellents applied to foliage need to be reapplied as the plant produces new growth. Personally, as a homeowner and small-scale grower, I would prefer to treat the area around any food plants rather than treating food plants directly. However, flowering plants, trees, and shrubs can be treated directly, on the leaves, bark, and stems with an appropriate product.
Look for approval by organic organizations such as the Organic Materials Review Institute. Products to consider include: Deer Away, Rabbit Stopper, and DeFence. I have successfully used Sweeney’s All Out Deer and Rabbit Repellent – not organically approved, but the main ingredients are pepper and garlic.
You can find a variety of rabbit prevention sprays and granules at Amazon.com.
Make Your Own Rabbit Repellent
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that home-made repellents work against rabbits. Here are a couple of sites which have ideas on how to use soap, pepper, garlic etc and each includes a recipe:
- Suite 101 – 10 Ways to Deter Rabbits
- Blog article – How to Stop Rabbits Eating Your Garden
Keeping Rabbits Out
Another option for keeping rabbits off your plants, and a good one if rabbits are an extensive problem, is to physically exclude the rabbits using fencing, or other barriers.
Keeping rabbits out could be a good plan if you want to prevent damage before it starts, if you want to protect individual vulnerable plants, trees, or shrubs, or if you don’t want to have to keep treating with repellents.
You can find good advice on these physical methods in the publication I already mentioned Cottontail Rabbits: Urban Wildlife Damage Control. Clicking that link will download the pdf file to your computer.
Scaring Rabbits Away
You may have heard of products and methods which can scare off rabbits and other animals – I’ve read about things like automatically activated water sprays, twigs placed around plants, shiny objects which move, etc. I can’t speak to the effectiveness of any of these. Please do leave a comment if you’ve found something which works.
According to Charles Lee, Wildlife Specialist, “Frightening devices, including electromagnetic and ultrasonic units, have not been proven effective in controlling cottontail rabbit damage.”
Plants Which Rabbits Dislike
Another option for discouraging rabbits is to focus on growing plants which rabbits dislike. This is a pretty extensive topic which I won’t go into here. I also think this approach is limited for the wildlife gardener who wants to have nature in their garden and probably wants to include native plants which rabbits will enjoy.
Here are a couple of articles on picking plants rabbits don’t like:
- Better Homes and Gardens – Top Rabbit-Resistant Plants
- Penn State – Rabbit Resistant Plants List – click to download the pdf.
- University of Arizona – Deer and Rabbit Resistant Plants – click to download the pdf.
If you need a list specific to your area just try a Google search on the words Rabbit Resistant Plants and add the name of your state. Bear in mind that lists may focus on non-native plants.
The Lazy Method of Rabbit Control
Assuming you are happy to live with rabbits as part of the nature in your garden, and with some degree of damage, you can use what I’ll call the lazy method – don’t deal with a problem until it happens and don’t expect perfection. Then use whatever method of control is easiest and only protect plants you paid for recently which are small and vulnerable.
Alternatively you could get yourself a dog!
Are rabbits a problem in your garden? How have you dealt with them?
You can find a variety of rabbit repelling sprays and granules at Amazon.com.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by rshreeves, Wendy Gabriel and john markowski, john markowski. john markowski said: RT @alisonkerr: New Article – How to Stop Rabbits Eating Your Plants (they sure are cute but they can be a nuisance) http://ow.ly/1RiEh #gardening [...]
I’ve tried everything from pepper on the leaves to human hair to hanging cd’s that reflect the sun. The only effective method I’ve ever found is a good fence. Even my cat wandering around the backyard doesn’t phase the rabbits that live in the “condo under our shed.”
Robin´s last blog ..What do young adults care about?
“Another option for keeping rabbits off your plants, and a good one if rabbits are an extensive problem, is to physically exclude the rabbits using fencing, or other barriers.”
It sounds like rabbits are an extensive problem for you then Robin. Thanks for sharing.
My neighbor used to have a cat which came into our garden too and kept down our rabbit population. Unfortunately the cat killed a lot of birds – I think I’m seeing more young birds now that it’s gone. I’m fairly content with the trade-off, at least for the moment…
We used to have a cat that kept everything at bay. I never needed a fence for my garden. In fact, in the morning, we’d have to do a walk around the backyard to clean up the small animals she’d lovingly left us before the boys could go out to play. It bothered me, but I also recognized that it was part of her nature, and we would point the boys to The Lion King movie to help explain. This current cat however, scares nothing. In fact, when she goes outside, we frequently hear squirrels and birds up in the trees mocking her. I’m not kidding. She cowers under a bush and the trees are practically laughing.
Robin´s last blog ..What do young adults care about?
Here’s another question, how do you stop cat’s from eating rabbits. It’s freaking me out how just when an animal comes into my life, you write about it. First it was the chicken, now the rabbit. A neighbourhood cat tortured a poor bunny today in our front yard. Nature can be cruel. Anyway, I digress. Always a pleasure to wander into your garden, Alison.
Katie´s last blog ..How to Time Travel on a Budget
It sounds like I may have to research and write about cat repellent. Cats can be a bad nuisance when it comes to garden wildlife. Maybe we need more cats like Robin’s!
I’m not sure if there are effective solutions to keeping cats away but I’m willing to find out.
The wildlife I’m involved with lately is not bunny rabbits, but rather a family of red foxes – the mom and her 3 pups – who have taken up residence in my rhubarb patch. I’ve been watching them from my kitchen window and I’m worried about what the neighbours will do. People around here are hunters, not nature watchers.
Gina´s last blog ..Another Reason for Going Organic
I don’t think I have too much bunny damage, so I haven’t had any need to repel them. I suppose if I were planting a lot of saplings I’d have to put up the little tree cages, but I seem to be getting off lucky.
I’ve heard that used cat litter works–predator urine, easy to come by, and the litter holds the scent pretty well–but then you’ve got used cat litter in your garden, so…y’know.
UrsulaV´s last blog ..Unlikely Gardeners
The rabbits were never a nuisance for us, but the deer were voracious! I can only assume that, like deer, no amount of repellent or “rabbit proof” plantings will keep them at bay, if they are truly hungry. I wonder if sacrificial plantings would work for rabbits? It was not very effective against deer, because they can east so much at, ahem, one sitting.
Royla mention of a sacrificial planting reminded me that in Mexico the rabbits were always found in my alfalfa field… so maybe a sacrificial border of alfalfa all around the property? In my experience, all animals prefer alfalfa over any other plant, it’s highly nutritious, I’m sure they’d prefer it over the geraniums.
Gina´s last blog ..Another Reason for Going Organic
[...] running through areas only 10 blocks from downtown Chicago I think there might be a larger problem.You would think that living in a very large city that the problems with wildlife would not be very m…out to the country and be free to roam where ever they liked. Well this apparently is not the case [...]
Iagree a cat is a good choice of getting rid of problem rabbits. I breed rabits Lion Heads and long hanging ears, I can’t remember the name. I keep my rabits in nice wooden boxes with lots of straw. Males are seperate from female. Grown cats sepecially females will lower the population down easily. Best catchers of rabbits I know of.