Looking for humane ways to keep those “wascally wabbits” from snacking on your lettuce and carrots? The best offense is a good defense: literally, a fence will do the job quite effectively. However, if you opt not to fence in your vegetable garden for whatever reason and your crops are plagued by rabbits’ voracious appetites, consider these alternatives. Did we forget anything humane and effective? Let us know in the comments.
Use pheromones / predator urine to deter rabbits
Many gardeners find urine to be an effective rabbit combatant. Urine emits pheromones, a biological chemical that smells offensive to rabbits. Surely, there are multiple ways to get a urine-lined garden, but here’s a discrete method: used kitty litter. If your cats are already using organic kitty litter, your last step is to crumble or sprinkle their used litter around the edges of your garden.
Trapping Rabbits
Trapping is perhaps the most effective way to rid your garden of rabbits. Wire mesh traps can be built or bought (and often rented) for as low as $30 and are reusable. Place traps where rabbits typically feed but near areas of cover so that rabbits don’t have to cross much open ground to get to them. Use any of their favorite vegetables as bait. Check traps at least once per day and release into the wild when caught.
This well-liked $50 trap on Amazon is large enough to be used for raccoons, stray cats, opossums, and groundhogs.
Trap crops
Trap crops are “trick crops.” They are planted a short distance away from the crops you want to preserve and gain the attention of unwanted critters or pests such as rabbits. In fact, trap crops can also attract other critters who will scare away rabbits.
Rabbits prefer beans, beets, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, peas, cilantro, and parsley. If rabbits are your number one pest, consider surrounding your garden with a few rows of collateral lettuce. Rabbits won’t get move much farther in if they have a steady supply. Or, plant a bed of parsley far from your garden for rabbits to snack on and instead, line the perimeter of your garden with vegetables rabbits dislike: corn, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, or potatoes.
Rabbit repellents
Here are some potential repellents that you can mix up today using household items:
Combine in a squirt bottle:
2 raw eggs
1 quart water
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce
A squirt of dish soap
Combine in a squirt bottle:
1 tablespoon castor oil
1 tablespoon liquid detergent
1 gallon of warm water
Sprinkle any of these around your garden perimeter:
Black ground pepper
Garlic powder
Hair snips – human or animal
Moth balls
Dried blood meal
You’ll need to reapply these after rainfall.
Like the idea of repellant but don’t want to make your own? An Amazon favorite is available for $31: all-natural Liquid Fence Concentrate (will make 5 gallons). The product dries odorless and is rain-resistant. It is safe for use on edible crops.
Liquid Fence won’t harm plants or animals. Ingredients include both egg and garlic, often used in homemade mixtures. Liquid Fence also claims to work on deer.
For additional resources, visit:
http://ucipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7447.html
http://icwdm.org/handbook/mammals/CottontailRabbits.asp
Creative Commons Flickr photo courtesy of devra
Live traps work but my objection is that trapped doe might have a burrow of kits nearby. In rural areas supporting a population of rabbits this need not be a problem as burrows often are shared. Not so in suburban and urban rabbits. We have pet rabbits and they know where the garden location. We use metal wire rabbit fencing with a line of large River Rock running along both sides of the fence. Rabbits do not get into my garden.
Thanks for the article but I think you might have missed one….a physical fence?
Rabbits burrow.
The best offense is a good defense: literally, a fence will do the job quite effectively. However
says right on top goof read
Little furry bastards laid waste to my vegetable plot this year. I would have shot, poisoned, guillotined or trapped them but am going to replace my fence with a higher one!
A couple black hoses laying around the garden will keep them out! I have rabbits all over our property. Not One rabbit has gone into the garden. They think they are snakes!
If you’re able to get your hands on some dog hair – either ask a dog groomer or a friend with dogs, get a good sized bag of the hair and work it into the soil around the veggie patch and near the door of your greenhouse – rabbits hate the smell of predator and as the hair decomposes it provides food for the garden. Double win!
Regarding the traps for rabbits.
That is a terrible idea.
The rabbit is trapped and are the mercy of predators during the night.
If it lives until morning, when you approach, or will panic and injure or kill itself.
Not a nice way, esp if there is a litter nearby.
That is NOT what to do with rabbits.
Really bad information
Sorry-I respectfully and completely disagree.
First, set traps at first sign of rabbits before chance of nesting. Second, common sense tells you to check traps every hour or 2 so trapped animals don’t go without water and aren’t exposed to harsh weather. A good trap will keep predators out. Next, if there’s a family, setting several traps in close proximity will capture families. Baby rabbits are on their own very soon after birth and know how to find food. Relocating rabbits is more successful than for other animals that need room for their ‘territory’. I intend to have a garden full of a large investment of lilies, other bulbs I want to see grow and bloom, flowers, shrubs and trees. I will place low protective fencing where I can. Fake snakes will help if moved around regularly. Predator ‘urine’ works well if refreshed regularly. Otherwise, I will responsibly trap persistent rabbits anytime they insist on dining in my garden – it is a good, viable option. I have a big investment financially, I use water wisely, invest hours of hard work, and I expect to be able to enjoy my garden.
We have a rabbit that’s been living around here for many years. What happened if we trapped it, moved it and the next day he was eaten by a coyote?
Then the coyote’s family will live to see another day. Or do you think coyote lives are less valuable than rabbit lives?
right now my garden has been destroyed by that lil biatch…I don’t have alot of love for furry things right now sorry
Remember rabbit is very tasty. Trapping it is a great way to get some meat to go with the vegetables from your garden. A delicious meal indeed.
There are 8 ways to keep rabbits out of the yard. Method 1: make a rabbit repellent. Method 2: create diy plant cages to protect from rabbits. Method 3: try scare tactics. Method 4: utilize an electronic pest repeller. Method 5: use coffee grounds. Method 6: consider planting rabbit-resistant plants. Method 7: seek assistance from your furbabies. Method 8: keep your garden tidy.
Those cute little rabbits have pressed my last nerve! If I could, I would kill them! Since I’ve put chicken wire around all my echanacia plants, these little b-tards have taken to biting the flowers off the plants they really don’t like and leaving them on the ground as a sign of protest – this is war! They are also munching on my gladiolus as they come up! I’m not putting a fence around my flower garden as that would be ludicrous. I’m going to order coyote urine and hope that works. If it doesn’t, blood will be shed! I’m joking – sort of……