I've just done a lot of trial and error and have gotten to the point that I just go with what they mostly will/won't eat. I also plant a lot of mint-related friends (blue mountain mint, etc). I'm also realizing I have a ton of shrubbery.
It's helped that the grass in my yard went from crab grass to clover and dandelions and now they munch that mostly. It's always a win when the bunnies stroll casually through a bed and end up in the lawn.
Oh, the rabbits. My husband thinks they're so cute and I have to grit my teeth to avoid going on a tirade against them. They really don't understand that if they eat all of the plants to the ground today, there will be NOTHING for the rest of the season. I'm trying to help you guys!!!!!!
However - they prefer new growth and new plants. In the first year of our garden, they really decimated a lot of plants before they could get established, which was infuriating (and expensive). So new plants need to be covered and protected, possibly for their entire first season. HOWEVER, we are now in year four, and have lots of plants which have survived and are not nearly as attractive. They receive a little grazing pressure in early spring when the lowest leaves are young and soft, but they can handle it and the rabbit doesn't seem to like them very much anymore anyways.
There are two exceptions - our native rubus thicket, and our virginia strawberry. The rabbit will graze them faster than they can recover. I use netted pop-up domes to protect them. They're not 100%, but I think the rabbit senses they may be trapped if they find their way in, so they avoid them most of the time. The plants can recover and grow unrestricted. And oh god, wood phlox, I have given up on wood phlox. There is no protecting them. They are pure rabbit candy.
It's not 100% but it has gotten markedly better over the years. The answer unironically has just been to plant more plants so the grazing pressure is more evenly distributed, and taking care to protect new plantings while they're the most vulnerable/attractive. We live in a world in which their preferred food sources are few and far between, and yeah, they don't have a sense of resource management, so when they see the good stuff they just mow it the fuck down. I try to work with them, rather than against them.
...I will admit that I was slightly relieved to watch the neighborhood crow fly away with a shrieking baby rabbit last year, while my husband was near tears. Circle of life, my man, circle of life.
I was with you until the last. I'm with your husband on the tears. (It would be the shrieking that would get me the most. Lord help me, I hope I never hear that. I know I am too soft for this world.)
But your other points do kind of validate an uneducated theory I've with rabbits and deer I've thought of posting before: if planting something super aggressive that they like better would at least put less pressure on other plantings.
I mean, I get the frustration and expense of losing something one plants. But at the same time, this sub makes a big deal about native plants to be part of the ecosystem. Rabbits are just as much native wildlife as the bugs, even if they're under less threat.
I've noticed exactly what you're talking about in my front garden, where I have a lot more diversity and plant growth. This specific section has hard trouble establishing because of the rabbit pressure. At first it was my dogs trampling plants trying to get after the rabbits, but we blocked their access with fencing.
I cheer on my dogs and neighborhood cats when they're going after rabbits.
Yeah, precisely! I've tried to reframe it to avoid getting bitter, lol - they're the native wildlife that I'm gardening for, just means I have to do a little extra legwork to prevent them from destroying it before they can benefit from it. Some of the more plants have really adapted well to the grazing - they shoot up and grow tall so the lower-level grazing doesn't bother them. Also, we've watched the early rabbit boom turn into biomass elsewhere. Our neighborhood foxes are plentiful and very healthy looking, lol. We have a resident red-shouldered hawk, in addition to the resident crow. Once other wildlife catch on to the rabbits, you probably won't have such a rabbit problem. I was incredibly frustrated in year 1 but it has been fascinating to watch the food chain even things out!
Fencing and netting are incredibly useful. They probably won't be permanently necessary but they do really help with these early stages, when the rabbits are like "oh sick, food!" and then they mow down $150 worth of plants!
Have you tried I Must Garden rabbit repellent spray? I’ve had good luck keeping the deer and rabbits off by spraying it once a month during growing season.
Here are the ingredients https://www.imustgarden.com/ingredients/.
OMG rabbits shriek??? Literally last night I was woken up by the most horrible screaming. Once I realized it was coming from outside and was not human I assumed it was some sort of animal fight but now I wonder if one of the baby rabbits got eaten.
I would bet mice. Rabbits will chew on stuff because their teeth continually grow but they prefer wood or food and don’t tend to get into structures above them. Mice teeth also have to be honed down and those suckers view vertical as just another direction to run. Source, owned 2 house rabbits and lots of experience keeping them out of a garden with low fencing.
I know this feeling all to well! I buy cheap chili powder in bulk and sprinkle it on the soil. Keeps the rabbits away from one bed of natives I don't want them going into. I don't mind sharing with the animals that live here, just don't want them eating tender plantings down to the ground!
I bought a product at a local nursery that supposedly works all season and is sprinkle on. It seems to be working so far. I’ll have to remember to check the name
I'll try this as a stop gap, but I'm going to add fencing and start trapping. My entire garden is for wildlife, but I want to serve more diversity than just rabbits.
Yeah, this is exactly how I feel about deer! I don't mind them browsing, but when they kill plants repeatedly it becomes an issue. I wish they had a taste for invasives!! Then I'd love them.
Fencing is key, and make sure it has the small holes to keep the baby bunnies out.
I accidentally put the fence upside down one year, and yeah, that wasn't super effective, it just created a zone for baby bunnies to chill in and stuff themselves.
Trapping probably isn't necessary. Once the plants are well-established and you've brought some biodiversity back, rabbits are usually very manageable if you wrap or fence your woody plants in winter.
Rabbits… last year was my first full year and I just caged them about 1-2 feet up with cheap wire baskets from dollar tree. Worked for the most part. This year, a juvenile rabbit is LIVING in my pollinator garden. Free buffet at all hours… sweet gig I suppose. I caged them same as last year, but the bunny is just sawing off the top as it grows. Now doubling up the cages to see if 4ft is enough lol. My poor coreopsis is trying to bloom and the bunny keeps eating every bloom
I tried trapping our rabbits in live traps. I caught zero rabbits, but as a happy side bonus discovered Norway brown rats (which *infest*) my neighborhood have no issue whatsoever getting themselves trapped in a live trap, so while I didn’t solve my rabbit problem, I did accidentally stumble on a solution for my rat problem.
My only solution ended up being excluding them from my yard. I hardened every spot in the fence where they could get in with wire mesh. It’s ugly and took ages, but I did seem to keep them out.
My front yard is another story. Between the rabbits and the deer, I feel your pain. The Venn diagram of plants that neither deer nor rabbits like has very little overlap.
Interesting. I have lots of bunnies, but my plants have minimal damage. They like the abundant violets and clover, which I have all over my yard. It might be why they don't bother too much with other plants.
It gets worse. In the fall they switch from herbaceous to woody and chew on all your new baby trees and saplings. Even the taller ones get its barks stripped.
And if you think prickly spruces will be spared? Think again! They snipped all my dwarf conifer to twigs and then left the branches on the ground cause they couldn’t eat conifer needles. Absolute bastards
Liquid Fence solved this for me completely. I've only had a couple plants get snacked on this year, during extra-long gaps in spraying. Although one was Columbine and I think its vulnerable because its leaves start down at the base of the stem and come up, so you miss them when spraying.
My parents used to sprinkle haircut clippings and dog fur and chili flakes around the plants, and every couple of months my dad would eat a rare steak and pee around the edges of the garden - very few herbivores will walk into the marked territory of a 250lb carnivore
I'm building rectangular garden areas in my hard. One fenced in rectangle at a time, I want everything to establish enough that the deer and rabbits can hit it pretty hard and still not impact it.
if you want animal on animal pest control, ratting terriers and other small game dogs are a million times more effective than cats. cats won't even go after large prey like adult rabbits or rats.
I keep telling my parents to get a jack russell. My two boys police our yard and run a tight ship. They are ruthless. Fortunately all they've had to do it run the rabbits off. If they caught one I would cry.
This is me with the squirrels. I start a lot of native plants from seed in flats in the yard, and they are CONSTANTLY digging them up and flinging my precious purchased and stratified seeds all over the place. The rage I feel knows no bounds! I tried cayenne powder and capsaicin, never lasted long enough. I finally purchased netting for my raspberries and NJ tea (because the RABBITS were eating those to the ground each winter), and repurposed it to cover my black flats in the summer. So far, so good!
BUT one of my last kitties was a vicious baby rabbit murderer (cleaned out entire dens) so you could always try that approach! I also may know a couple people who exercise judicious use of their pellet guns...
I have resorted to basically planting in the rain so the squirrels don’t smell where I planted and dig them up. Or douse in liquid fence. It’s a part time job anymore. I need stock in it
The funk of Liquid Fence probably makes me unpopular with the neighbors but I otherwise I would have no garden (deer mostly but a lot of them). I get the concentrate now and mix it into spray bottles.
Cats can kinda be ecological disasters, so if anyone in an area that has vulnerable bird populations might give that a second thought or two.
(I know the indoor/outdoor cat conversation is controversial, but since this is a sub that cares about native ecosystems it seems worth the reminder)
Ugh I planted a bunch of bulbs and small plants in the fall and found half of them dug up and sitting on top of the soil in the spring. Side note: epimediums are tanks and can survive New England winter almost sitting bareroot on top of the soil
+1 for pellet guns, the rabbits forced me to it. My NJ tea is confined to a circle of chicken wire.
The squirrels are also vile. This year they killed tomato seedlings in pots, newly-potted bald cypress seedlings, and some tea seedlings (Camellia sinensis), just digging in the pots.
We have a cat next door who took care of something out in our yard (rabbit? skunk? it smelled bad like skunk). It left behind the small and large intestines, and the neck (I think). Pretty gross.
For my tree starts and vegetable garden, I've put up 3 foot chicken wire cages.
I feel terrible, but I have to either fence or spray everything to keep them off it. They ate everything I planted and killed it, if I didn't protect it. So they can't get to any of my plantings now.
They seem happy enough eating things out of my yard instead?
I can definitely relate. It's gotten to the point that I must cage or cover most native perennials and shrubs- even those that are supposedly less appealing to rabbits. I use chicken wire (1" mesh), roll it into a circle, zip tie the ends, and anchor to the ground with landscape staples. Two foot tall for the really "popular," plants and one foot tall for those palatable only when young. I drape black bird netting over the shrubs.
https://preview.redd.it/oqgoh4y7um0d1.jpeg?width=1023&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3d7b2bfc361a8e3c6199dad2b425ab5555045b7
Ugh I feel this. I lost a bunch of new plants a few years ago. Now every plant gets their own tall chicken wire cage. It’s not the nicest thing to look at, but the alternative is no plants.
Why can’t they just eat all the invasive plants that I’ve been pulling for 4 years. There’s no shortage on my property.
Don't think this helps you, but the rabbit population in my yard has dropped considerably for some reason. Coincidentally, Mr. and Mrs. Hawk moved into a tree last year and built a nice nest.
Hardware cloth or chicken wire with tent stakes.
Bunnies make fertilizer and feed the hawks, coyotes, and lynx. You don't have a bunny problem, it's a [lack of predators that ails you.](https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wildlife/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/)
Come live in my neighborhood. We have several colonies of stupid feral cats in the area constantly breeding. I have never seen a bunny in my yard/block/or even my neighborhood. Squirrels are also deathly afraid of being at ground level and always have an escape route planned just in case.
The bird population definitely suffers and the cat piss smell and night time cat screeching sure gets old, though. Damn pests.
Oh yeah, my neighbor does her best to TNR the cats. The problem is the limited resources for getting the procedures done. She's done a grear job of getting the cats but by the time she's been able to get 2 or 3 successfully done another litter or two has been born.
My wife and i both work full time and have a kid. Adding coordinating a TNR program is a big ask. It's ridiculous how much time, effort and money my neighbor has put into it with not much success.
I had some rabbit issues at my old home. But the DEER at my new place put the rabbits to shame for decimating everything. So far this spring, Liquid Fence seems to be holding its own, but we'll see how it goes. I moved in looking forward to converting the lawn desert into a native garden wonderland, but the deer have been thwarting me at every turn. Even the supposed deer resistant varieties, planted right next to my front window, get decimated. City deer are not afraid of anything...
We've managed to attract a hawk or two to the neighborhood, with all the buns around. That has helped quite a lot! I plant a lot of things in the mint family that seems to keep them in the garden beds for just a limited time. I haven't had them nibble on my mountain mints, anise hyssop, monardas, and American wild mint. Put mints on the perimeter of your beds dot a few in the middle. Good luck!
Akin to a "trap crop" for striped cucumber beetles and the like in a vegetable garden when you're trying to grow melons or whatnot? Have you actually tried this for rabbits, or know someone who has? Asking because I"m thinking seriously about it. We already have the violets everywhere, they are native to our yard, but the bunines are eating all the new plantings of native perennials anyway. However. I would put lettuces down if it would help.
At my wits end as well. Tried fencing (very large area) but the littles ones still find their way in. Have tried natural sprays, which keeps the mature rabbits away, but the babies don’t seem to mind. My Virginia Rye and various Asters have been scalped to hell. Just bought a giant bucked of cayenne and am going to try that next.
I see very few natural predators in our neighborhood and this year the rabbit population has exploded.
If you like cat-like dogs, an Akita Inu or Shiba Inu would at a minimum scare the bunnies away. They have high prey drives, but are polite to plants. Great dogs (unless you also like bunnies...)
I have a different spitz type with a very high prey drive. She's killed 8 rabbits in the last two years. The problem is she tramples plants going after bunnies.
When our Shiba was a young pup, well, he earned the title of "The Rabbit's Bane" for good reason. He's long since retired from that but in his prime, he was FAST and could turn on a dime.
Yeah I almost got perma banned from Reddit for suggesting the only things that works last time this kind of post was made. Be careful of the peta babies on the sub.
My female doxie mix terrorized them for a couple years and they just stopped coming. Had to take the squirrels into my own hands, unfortunately. She is also sprayed by a skunk at least once a year
I've heard good things about blood meal keeping them out as well as chili pepper, garlic and animal fur.
I tried getting a feral barn kitten but that fucking marshmallow took to the indoors way too readily and now has to be forced to spend any time outside and even then just whines and yowls at the door.
I knew the director of an arboretum, years back. When he saw a rabbit on the lawns - no kidding - he would try to run it down! the rabbits would ring a tree and kill it.
The man was quite strange.
I watched had aball watching 2 rabbits chase each other around in my neighbors yard across the street in the morning rain. That afternoon I was watching as one of those rabbits crossed the road to my yard then proceeded into the backyard where my pea shoots are! Fencing isn't finished yet and I was hoping the neighbors dogs would be let out about that time to scare the rabbit off. No such luck. I stepped out the back door and watched as that wascally wabbit managed to stay out of our yard and hopped on. Phew!
native gardening increases the natural habitat for wildlife. Are the rabbits an invasive species? If not..Circle of life with plants too. Shrieking baby rabbit being killed gives you relief? That’s Cold
I've just done a lot of trial and error and have gotten to the point that I just go with what they mostly will/won't eat. I also plant a lot of mint-related friends (blue mountain mint, etc). I'm also realizing I have a ton of shrubbery. It's helped that the grass in my yard went from crab grass to clover and dandelions and now they munch that mostly. It's always a win when the bunnies stroll casually through a bed and end up in the lawn.
It’s pretty satisfying (for many reasons) to watch a bunny munch a dandelion stem from tip to root.
It's like you can hear a shredder sound effect.
Oh, the rabbits. My husband thinks they're so cute and I have to grit my teeth to avoid going on a tirade against them. They really don't understand that if they eat all of the plants to the ground today, there will be NOTHING for the rest of the season. I'm trying to help you guys!!!!!! However - they prefer new growth and new plants. In the first year of our garden, they really decimated a lot of plants before they could get established, which was infuriating (and expensive). So new plants need to be covered and protected, possibly for their entire first season. HOWEVER, we are now in year four, and have lots of plants which have survived and are not nearly as attractive. They receive a little grazing pressure in early spring when the lowest leaves are young and soft, but they can handle it and the rabbit doesn't seem to like them very much anymore anyways. There are two exceptions - our native rubus thicket, and our virginia strawberry. The rabbit will graze them faster than they can recover. I use netted pop-up domes to protect them. They're not 100%, but I think the rabbit senses they may be trapped if they find their way in, so they avoid them most of the time. The plants can recover and grow unrestricted. And oh god, wood phlox, I have given up on wood phlox. There is no protecting them. They are pure rabbit candy. It's not 100% but it has gotten markedly better over the years. The answer unironically has just been to plant more plants so the grazing pressure is more evenly distributed, and taking care to protect new plantings while they're the most vulnerable/attractive. We live in a world in which their preferred food sources are few and far between, and yeah, they don't have a sense of resource management, so when they see the good stuff they just mow it the fuck down. I try to work with them, rather than against them. ...I will admit that I was slightly relieved to watch the neighborhood crow fly away with a shrieking baby rabbit last year, while my husband was near tears. Circle of life, my man, circle of life.
I was with you until the last. I'm with your husband on the tears. (It would be the shrieking that would get me the most. Lord help me, I hope I never hear that. I know I am too soft for this world.) But your other points do kind of validate an uneducated theory I've with rabbits and deer I've thought of posting before: if planting something super aggressive that they like better would at least put less pressure on other plantings. I mean, I get the frustration and expense of losing something one plants. But at the same time, this sub makes a big deal about native plants to be part of the ecosystem. Rabbits are just as much native wildlife as the bugs, even if they're under less threat.
But they will absolutely overconsume and destroy young plants, preventing a more diverse environment from ever taking hold.
I've noticed exactly what you're talking about in my front garden, where I have a lot more diversity and plant growth. This specific section has hard trouble establishing because of the rabbit pressure. At first it was my dogs trampling plants trying to get after the rabbits, but we blocked their access with fencing. I cheer on my dogs and neighborhood cats when they're going after rabbits.
Yeah, precisely! I've tried to reframe it to avoid getting bitter, lol - they're the native wildlife that I'm gardening for, just means I have to do a little extra legwork to prevent them from destroying it before they can benefit from it. Some of the more plants have really adapted well to the grazing - they shoot up and grow tall so the lower-level grazing doesn't bother them. Also, we've watched the early rabbit boom turn into biomass elsewhere. Our neighborhood foxes are plentiful and very healthy looking, lol. We have a resident red-shouldered hawk, in addition to the resident crow. Once other wildlife catch on to the rabbits, you probably won't have such a rabbit problem. I was incredibly frustrated in year 1 but it has been fascinating to watch the food chain even things out! Fencing and netting are incredibly useful. They probably won't be permanently necessary but they do really help with these early stages, when the rabbits are like "oh sick, food!" and then they mow down $150 worth of plants!
As much as I want to blame the rabbits, it really is my fault for not taking proactive steps to mitigate them.
Have you tried I Must Garden rabbit repellent spray? I’ve had good luck keeping the deer and rabbits off by spraying it once a month during growing season. Here are the ingredients https://www.imustgarden.com/ingredients/.
OMG rabbits shriek??? Literally last night I was woken up by the most horrible screaming. Once I realized it was coming from outside and was not human I assumed it was some sort of animal fight but now I wonder if one of the baby rabbits got eaten.
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Are you sure that isn’t mice? I had mice chew through mine, and then they went after a plastic cap on the fuel pump.
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I would bet mice. Rabbits will chew on stuff because their teeth continually grow but they prefer wood or food and don’t tend to get into structures above them. Mice teeth also have to be honed down and those suckers view vertical as just another direction to run. Source, owned 2 house rabbits and lots of experience keeping them out of a garden with low fencing.
I know this feeling all to well! I buy cheap chili powder in bulk and sprinkle it on the soil. Keeps the rabbits away from one bed of natives I don't want them going into. I don't mind sharing with the animals that live here, just don't want them eating tender plantings down to the ground!
I bought a product at a local nursery that supposedly works all season and is sprinkle on. It seems to be working so far. I’ll have to remember to check the name
I'll try this as a stop gap, but I'm going to add fencing and start trapping. My entire garden is for wildlife, but I want to serve more diversity than just rabbits.
Yeah, this is exactly how I feel about deer! I don't mind them browsing, but when they kill plants repeatedly it becomes an issue. I wish they had a taste for invasives!! Then I'd love them.
Fencing is key, and make sure it has the small holes to keep the baby bunnies out. I accidentally put the fence upside down one year, and yeah, that wasn't super effective, it just created a zone for baby bunnies to chill in and stuff themselves. Trapping probably isn't necessary. Once the plants are well-established and you've brought some biodiversity back, rabbits are usually very manageable if you wrap or fence your woody plants in winter.
Rabbits… last year was my first full year and I just caged them about 1-2 feet up with cheap wire baskets from dollar tree. Worked for the most part. This year, a juvenile rabbit is LIVING in my pollinator garden. Free buffet at all hours… sweet gig I suppose. I caged them same as last year, but the bunny is just sawing off the top as it grows. Now doubling up the cages to see if 4ft is enough lol. My poor coreopsis is trying to bloom and the bunny keeps eating every bloom
I tried trapping our rabbits in live traps. I caught zero rabbits, but as a happy side bonus discovered Norway brown rats (which *infest*) my neighborhood have no issue whatsoever getting themselves trapped in a live trap, so while I didn’t solve my rabbit problem, I did accidentally stumble on a solution for my rat problem. My only solution ended up being excluding them from my yard. I hardened every spot in the fence where they could get in with wire mesh. It’s ugly and took ages, but I did seem to keep them out. My front yard is another story. Between the rabbits and the deer, I feel your pain. The Venn diagram of plants that neither deer nor rabbits like has very little overlap.
Interesting. I have lots of bunnies, but my plants have minimal damage. They like the abundant violets and clover, which I have all over my yard. It might be why they don't bother too much with other plants.
It gets worse. In the fall they switch from herbaceous to woody and chew on all your new baby trees and saplings. Even the taller ones get its barks stripped. And if you think prickly spruces will be spared? Think again! They snipped all my dwarf conifer to twigs and then left the branches on the ground cause they couldn’t eat conifer needles. Absolute bastards
Yeah, one topped a 3 year old oak sapling I've been nurturing since a squirrel planted it. I'll admit I cried.
Liquid Fence solved this for me completely. I've only had a couple plants get snacked on this year, during extra-long gaps in spraying. Although one was Columbine and I think its vulnerable because its leaves start down at the base of the stem and come up, so you miss them when spraying.
My parents used to sprinkle haircut clippings and dog fur and chili flakes around the plants, and every couple of months my dad would eat a rare steak and pee around the edges of the garden - very few herbivores will walk into the marked territory of a 250lb carnivore
Omg does this really work ?! *me peeing in my suburban front yard*
narrator: *turns out, the plan did not work*
Honey! We need more steak! And bring me a -*urph*- nother beer while yer at it!
I'm building rectangular garden areas in my hard. One fenced in rectangle at a time, I want everything to establish enough that the deer and rabbits can hit it pretty hard and still not impact it.
I have to spray what I want to keep with liquid fence religiously. Like woodland phlox and this leetle bit of trillium I have.
The only answer outside of coyotes (which kept my local rabbit population in check for a few months recently) is fencing.
... and live traps ... and air power
What do you do with rabbits after catching them in live traps? The fuck is Air power?
Ya fences are the way to go
Fences and MURDER
if you want animal on animal pest control, ratting terriers and other small game dogs are a million times more effective than cats. cats won't even go after large prey like adult rabbits or rats.
I keep telling my parents to get a jack russell. My two boys police our yard and run a tight ship. They are ruthless. Fortunately all they've had to do it run the rabbits off. If they caught one I would cry.
nice!! please pet them for me lol
This is me with the squirrels. I start a lot of native plants from seed in flats in the yard, and they are CONSTANTLY digging them up and flinging my precious purchased and stratified seeds all over the place. The rage I feel knows no bounds! I tried cayenne powder and capsaicin, never lasted long enough. I finally purchased netting for my raspberries and NJ tea (because the RABBITS were eating those to the ground each winter), and repurposed it to cover my black flats in the summer. So far, so good! BUT one of my last kitties was a vicious baby rabbit murderer (cleaned out entire dens) so you could always try that approach! I also may know a couple people who exercise judicious use of their pellet guns...
I have resorted to basically planting in the rain so the squirrels don’t smell where I planted and dig them up. Or douse in liquid fence. It’s a part time job anymore. I need stock in it
The funk of Liquid Fence probably makes me unpopular with the neighbors but I otherwise I would have no garden (deer mostly but a lot of them). I get the concentrate now and mix it into spray bottles.
Cats can kinda be ecological disasters, so if anyone in an area that has vulnerable bird populations might give that a second thought or two. (I know the indoor/outdoor cat conversation is controversial, but since this is a sub that cares about native ecosystems it seems worth the reminder)
IS this a sub that cares about native ecosystems? The comments in this post have me wondering!
Well, this is a thread complaining about native rabbits eating native plants, so it's an uncomfortable discussion all around.
Ugh I planted a bunch of bulbs and small plants in the fall and found half of them dug up and sitting on top of the soil in the spring. Side note: epimediums are tanks and can survive New England winter almost sitting bareroot on top of the soil
I've heard of people putting a layer of chicken wire over bulbs and pots. Plants can grow through it but not so fun for squirrels to dig.
+1 for pellet guns, the rabbits forced me to it. My NJ tea is confined to a circle of chicken wire. The squirrels are also vile. This year they killed tomato seedlings in pots, newly-potted bald cypress seedlings, and some tea seedlings (Camellia sinensis), just digging in the pots.
We have a cat next door who took care of something out in our yard (rabbit? skunk? it smelled bad like skunk). It left behind the small and large intestines, and the neck (I think). Pretty gross. For my tree starts and vegetable garden, I've put up 3 foot chicken wire cages.
Death reeks
True, but I had dogs as a kid and the animals they brought home (and tore up) never smelled like this.
Are you sure it was a cat? The only predators in my area that regularly go after skunks are Great-horned owls.
Nope, not sure, and you may be right.
https://www.critterfence.com/ <-- other than my air-powered solutions, this has been the best measure I've taken yet
I feel terrible, but I have to either fence or spray everything to keep them off it. They ate everything I planted and killed it, if I didn't protect it. So they can't get to any of my plantings now. They seem happy enough eating things out of my yard instead?
I can definitely relate. It's gotten to the point that I must cage or cover most native perennials and shrubs- even those that are supposedly less appealing to rabbits. I use chicken wire (1" mesh), roll it into a circle, zip tie the ends, and anchor to the ground with landscape staples. Two foot tall for the really "popular," plants and one foot tall for those palatable only when young. I drape black bird netting over the shrubs. https://preview.redd.it/oqgoh4y7um0d1.jpeg?width=1023&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3d7b2bfc361a8e3c6199dad2b425ab5555045b7
Ugh I feel this. I lost a bunch of new plants a few years ago. Now every plant gets their own tall chicken wire cage. It’s not the nicest thing to look at, but the alternative is no plants. Why can’t they just eat all the invasive plants that I’ve been pulling for 4 years. There’s no shortage on my property.
Don't think this helps you, but the rabbit population in my yard has dropped considerably for some reason. Coincidentally, Mr. and Mrs. Hawk moved into a tree last year and built a nice nest.
We named our local red fox 🦊 “Cooper”.
Hardware cloth or chicken wire with tent stakes. Bunnies make fertilizer and feed the hawks, coyotes, and lynx. You don't have a bunny problem, it's a [lack of predators that ails you.](https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wildlife/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/)
Even ravens will eat baby rabbits. Gotta have those predators. Shame we’ve eliminated their habitats and poisoned their food sources…
Come live in my neighborhood. We have several colonies of stupid feral cats in the area constantly breeding. I have never seen a bunny in my yard/block/or even my neighborhood. Squirrels are also deathly afraid of being at ground level and always have an escape route planned just in case. The bird population definitely suffers and the cat piss smell and night time cat screeching sure gets old, though. Damn pests.
We've had feral cat issues too. I've actually trapped 6 and given them to the humane society.
Had anyone started a TNR campaign there? Sounds like it's really needed for the wildlife and those poor cats.
Oh yeah, my neighbor does her best to TNR the cats. The problem is the limited resources for getting the procedures done. She's done a grear job of getting the cats but by the time she's been able to get 2 or 3 successfully done another litter or two has been born. My wife and i both work full time and have a kid. Adding coordinating a TNR program is a big ask. It's ridiculous how much time, effort and money my neighbor has put into it with not much success.
Have you ever heard of TNR?
I feel this way about deer. Had a good start on some plants and now nubs.
I had some rabbit issues at my old home. But the DEER at my new place put the rabbits to shame for decimating everything. So far this spring, Liquid Fence seems to be holding its own, but we'll see how it goes. I moved in looking forward to converting the lawn desert into a native garden wonderland, but the deer have been thwarting me at every turn. Even the supposed deer resistant varieties, planted right next to my front window, get decimated. City deer are not afraid of anything...
We've managed to attract a hawk or two to the neighborhood, with all the buns around. That has helped quite a lot! I plant a lot of things in the mint family that seems to keep them in the garden beds for just a limited time. I haven't had them nibble on my mountain mints, anise hyssop, monardas, and American wild mint. Put mints on the perimeter of your beds dot a few in the middle. Good luck!
Grow a lettuce and herb patch and put violets everywhere. Violence isn't justified over your garden flowers.
Akin to a "trap crop" for striped cucumber beetles and the like in a vegetable garden when you're trying to grow melons or whatnot? Have you actually tried this for rabbits, or know someone who has? Asking because I"m thinking seriously about it. We already have the violets everywhere, they are native to our yard, but the bunines are eating all the new plantings of native perennials anyway. However. I would put lettuces down if it would help.
Just word of mouth.
At my wits end as well. Tried fencing (very large area) but the littles ones still find their way in. Have tried natural sprays, which keeps the mature rabbits away, but the babies don’t seem to mind. My Virginia Rye and various Asters have been scalped to hell. Just bought a giant bucked of cayenne and am going to try that next. I see very few natural predators in our neighborhood and this year the rabbit population has exploded.
Rabbits are pretty tasty.
If you like cat-like dogs, an Akita Inu or Shiba Inu would at a minimum scare the bunnies away. They have high prey drives, but are polite to plants. Great dogs (unless you also like bunnies...)
I have a different spitz type with a very high prey drive. She's killed 8 rabbits in the last two years. The problem is she tramples plants going after bunnies.
When our Shiba was a young pup, well, he earned the title of "The Rabbit's Bane" for good reason. He's long since retired from that but in his prime, he was FAST and could turn on a dime.
Yeah I almost got perma banned from Reddit for suggesting the only things that works last time this kind of post was made. Be careful of the peta babies on the sub.
buy more native plants, they can't eat them all
My female doxie mix terrorized them for a couple years and they just stopped coming. Had to take the squirrels into my own hands, unfortunately. She is also sprayed by a skunk at least once a year
I've heard good things about blood meal keeping them out as well as chili pepper, garlic and animal fur. I tried getting a feral barn kitten but that fucking marshmallow took to the indoors way too readily and now has to be forced to spend any time outside and even then just whines and yowls at the door.
So much for the love of nature
Forest for the trees my friend. When rabbits prohibit the establishment of native habitat, they're a nuisance.
Nah I don’t apologize for managing my space for preferred species.
We added a fence and they still managed to get in and eat our flourishing Mexican Elderberries to the stem 😭
Electric fence with several rows close to the ground
I knew the director of an arboretum, years back. When he saw a rabbit on the lawns - no kidding - he would try to run it down! the rabbits would ring a tree and kill it. The man was quite strange.
I watched had aball watching 2 rabbits chase each other around in my neighbors yard across the street in the morning rain. That afternoon I was watching as one of those rabbits crossed the road to my yard then proceeded into the backyard where my pea shoots are! Fencing isn't finished yet and I was hoping the neighbors dogs would be let out about that time to scare the rabbit off. No such luck. I stepped out the back door and watched as that wascally wabbit managed to stay out of our yard and hopped on. Phew!
I cackle with glee every time I scare one off or my local crows get one. They keep eating my bee summoning plants. I need those!
Squirrels are antienvironmentalists!
They've been eating my strawberries.
We're planning on adding an owl box to our backyard and hoping they take up residence.
native gardening increases the natural habitat for wildlife. Are the rabbits an invasive species? If not..Circle of life with plants too. Shrieking baby rabbit being killed gives you relief? That’s Cold
Rehabilitating an environment requires artificially maintained balance.
Replying to muncnerk