rabbits in the garden

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What can I do to control wild rabbits? Last summer they ate EVERYTHING in my garden, except cucumbers and tomatoes! I tried marigolds in various spots (someone suggested that), no help; they just ate the next planting of beans! I have started on a fence around the garden, but it is expensive and time consuming. They also come into my yard and eat all the shrubs/trees I plant. I have dogs, but they don't have any impact.

Mary in KY

-- Mary Fischer (dmfischer@kih.net), February 15, 2002

Answers

Mary, read the posts on keeping out deer. It might take some time to fence(a strand of electric wire also?)but if you are going to plant a "buffet" for everything to partake of and not fence it off you are partaking in wishful thinking. LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), February 15, 2002.

Blood meal repels rabbits. You have to put it on each time it rains, but it works great and gives the plants some extra oomph too!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), February 15, 2002.

May sound gross, but use urine around the perimeter of the garden. That seems to repel them. Good Luck!

-- Wendy A (phillips-anteswe@pendleton.usmc.mil), February 15, 2002.

Guess shooting them is out of the question? I sure would. I have them in my yard every night but to my amazement they've only went into the garden once that I know of. Shot him. The others haven't eaten a thing (big knock on wood). Don't know why. I sometimes use an insecticidal soap ... maybe that's the answer?

If you use a fence, make sure you make a trough for it then replace the dirt. Kind of a few inches underground.

Tie the dogs next to the garden?

-- Mike in Pa (smfine@yahoo.com), February 15, 2002.


Mary, I've read that if you use raised bed and raise them high enough it will keep you from having to bend over so much and will be too high for the rabbits to get in. I haven't tried that method. I have my chicken run around 2 sides of my garden and the other 2 sides are fenced. I've had one baby rabbit in the garden but it vanished after a couple weeks. It actually was kind of cute because it was still at that stage when they try to sit still to hide from anything, but would be in plain site. It would hide in my tyfon greens right in plain site from above...my kids were enthralled. I kept having Peter Rabbit flashbacks and probably could have "popped a pot down on top of poor Peter" if I'd thought about it in time. The rabbit just vanished one day so I'm assuming something ate it. I am fortunate as I am surrounded on 3 sides by swamp and the fourth by a road, so I don't get too many rabbits here. Trying to dig a burrow in a swamp is a rather damp experience I'm sure!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), February 15, 2002.


OOHH Sheryl. I've killed many a swamp rabbit. Can be some good hunting!

-- Mike in Pa (smfine@yahoo.com), February 15, 2002.

I had the same problem a couple of years ago. I solved my problem by getting up just before daylight one morning and climbing up on the roof of my house with a .22 rifle.(I used a extension ladder) That morning I killed 4 rabbits in both my front and back yard. The next morning I killed 2.

Not sure if you can use a high powered rifle in your area or not, but a high powered air rifle can easily kill a rabbit as well. You might also can trap them using havahart live traps. Place the traps close to any rabbit activity and place some brush or grass up and over the trap, leaving the opening exposed. This will look like a good bedding place for the rabbits to hide during the day.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), February 16, 2002.


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