Controlling Rabbits & Defending your garden

by Dave Molinaro

But, what about those real rabbits in your real garden? 

Unappealing Flowers  

Do you remember when you were five years old and mom put Brussels sprouts on your dinner plate, and you exclaimed, “Yuck, Mom?!”  You can get the same reaction from rabbits by providing unappealing flowers for them.  The following list of perennial flowers spells “yuck” to a rabbit's hearty appetite.  Try to introduce a few of these plants into your garden: aster, astilbe, autumn crocus, bellflower, bergenia, bishops hat, cranesbill geranium, daylily, foxglove, globeflower, hosta, iris, lamb’s ear, leopards bane, meadow sage, meadow sweet, monkshood, narcissus, Oriental poppy, pearly everlasting, red hot poker, sedum, snakeroot, wild indigo, wormwood, yarrow and yucca.   See: Deer and Rabbit Resistant Plants

Unappealing Vegetables

In general, rabbits will not eat corn, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers or potatoes, but make note, rabbits love Brussels sprouts!  Visit: http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/frederick/2002/rabbits.htm;  Keeping Rabbits Out of Your Garden by Lisha Utt

Introduce a Disease

In Europe and Australia, governments introduced “myxomatosis,” which killed off about 90% of the rabbit population . . . for a while.  Unfortunately, the remaining 10% reproduced like rabbits.  Visit:http://www.gardensafari.net/english/rabbit.htm

A Fence, Fox Urine, Traps and Cats.  

Here are five steps to bye-bye Flopsy and Mopsy:

• First Step: Install a three- to four-foot rabbit fence.  Small mesh fencing or pest netting will keep out the rabbits and other small animals, which can slip between normally wide fencing. 

• Step Two: Frequently check the bottom of the fence for spots where a bunny can crawl under, and then fortify the weak points.  Consider rimming the fence with boards or bricks to deter rabbits from digging under the fence. 

• Step Three: There is a variety of products at your local garden store that produce varying degrees of success. These include concentrated urine from fox and other carnivore animals that are natural predators to garden-munching bunnies.  Something readily available to us all, ferret feces, is another option. 

• Step Four: Set out “Have-a-heart” or “Live Traps.”  These traps capture rabbits and small animals without harming them.  They then can be transferred to another location and released far from your garden.  If you pursue this option, it is very important that you check local rules and regulations for trapping, transporting and release of wild animals.  In Charlotte, you would first need to get a trapping permit from the North Carolina Wildlife Commission (call 919.707.0050).  Once you have trapped Flopsy or Mopsy, call 311 to dispatch Animal Control to take your prisoners away—far, far away! 

• Step Five: Consider a cat.  Felines do a great job keeping rabbits and other small animals away.  However, should the cat snooze on the job, then spread its used kitty litter around the garden—another yuck.  See: http://www.gardenersnet.com/atoz/rabbitcontrol.htm

In the end, if all else fails, recall how our furry rabbit harkens back to the pagan fertility goddess Eostre, whose springtime feast celebrated renewal and rebirth.  Therefore, rejoice and be glad.