Knowing a bit about how to get rid of rabbits from your garden or yard is useful because while having a wild rabbit or two around the outside of your home is not a big deal, rabbits multiply extremely fast and can become a complete disaster for your garden.
They love to feed off of vegetable gardens and landscaping that includes multiple young plants and trees. Typically rabbits prefer to live near water and select a habitat that has plenty of food sources and water to their liking.
If you live in a home near a creek, pond, or stream, then you may notice some rabbits hopping around. They are visible during the day, but they do tend to hide in high grass and other areas that help keep them safe from predators. If you have plenty of fruit trees and a vegetable garden, then it’s highly likely that you will have an abundance of rabbits around your home rather quickly.
You may have rabbits on your property and not know it. There are several ways to determine if you have them and ways to help get rid of them or prevent them from coming around.
Prevent Rabbits from Choosing Your Home as Their Habitat
Click here if you want to keep rabbits out of your garden.
Place a chicken wire fencing around your vegetable garden and use multiple deterrents to keep rabbits out it. Spray your garden with household repellents including cayenne pepper and play manure, human and dog hair around or near the garden. Use a mixture of water and vinegar and spray it on the vegetables. Use dried sulfur and onion to deter them.
Use blood or bone meat fertilizer around the trees and shrubbery in your yard. Chemical repellents such as ammonium soaps or bitter bitrex can help keep rabbits away as well, but they may damage your garden. Alder and birch trees can be planted near other types of trees to help keep rabbits away.
Consider planting other types of plants including perennials such as honeysuckle and echinacea or other types of plants including periwinkle and bougainvillea and camellias. Goatweed, impatiens, and verbena are all great choices to keep rabbits from entering your yard.
Placing a motion activated sprinkler system is another organic way to keep rabbits away. They may like to live near water, but they don’t want to be sprayed. If you use one that is timed, they will learn when the water sprinkler comes on and just wait until it stops.
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Determine if You Have a Rabbit Problem
Take notice to your vegetable garden, trees, and shrubbery. Are the leaves chewed on or nibbled on in your vegetable garden and on some of your plants? Is the bark to the tree gnawed on? Rabbits have two large front teeth and will need to gnaw on bark particularly during the Winter months when there is not much to eat available.
They could completely remove the bark from the base of a young tree as it could be their only source of food during Winter. Analyze your yard for burrows and look for rabbit pellets. Rabbits tend to defecate a lot around the areas they spend the most time in. If you find a lot of small round pellets in the shape of a pea located in one area or along a trail, chances are rabbits are burrowing in the area.
Get Rid of What’s Attracting Rabbits to Your Yard
Analyze your yard and determine what may be some factors that are allowing these rabbits in. Reduce the habitat for the rabbits so they will leave. Are there holes around your home? Start closing them up. You can do this with chicken-mesh wire but make sure there are no rabbits inside the hole.
You can check under the porch, sheds, decks, and stairs. Any areas with holes will need to be sealed up once you determine there are no rabbits inside otherwise they will be trapped and die there causing a horrible odor. You can also use wood to cover up the holes depending on the area they decided to burrow. Continue to check on the areas regularly to make sure the areas of repair are not disturbed.
Build a fence around the water source you live next to. If you have a pond on your property, build a fence around it. Do the same around the creek that is close to your property or a stream. This will help prevent them from coming your way.
Get professional help to keep rabbits away from your garden.
Make sure you clean up the shrubbery and brushes around your home so the rabbits can’t burrow in them and trim trees and shrubbery. Fill in any existing burrows that may be around throughout your grass and keep your grass cut. If you have tall grass it creates an excellent place where rabbits can hide.
If all else fails then you can call upon a wild animal specialist that can use live traps to help remove the rabbits to another place where they can enjoy their habitat. You can contact animal control or your local parks and recreation department to learn rabbit control methods allowed in your area.