The eastern cottontail rabbit can be a pesky garden companion, so here are tips to help keep him away!
Controlling the Rabbit Population in your Yard
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Got rabbits? These small mammals can do a number on young plants, so prevention is paramount. Aside from fencing, there are many old-time remedies and other solutions that will keep them out of the garden patch! Plus, see a list of plants that rabbits tend to ignore.
Why Would You Keep Rabbits Away?
Anyone who tills the soil regards the rabbit as more than just a cute threat to the carrot patch. This long-eared animal possesses a voracious appetite for all kinds of fresh vegetation—woody plants, perennials, annuals, vegetables, and berries. In fact, a menu of rabbit favorites is so ridiculously long that it’s easier to list the few plants they don’t enjoy.
Rabbits also have an extremely high reproductive potential, so keeping them around might quickly cause a total garden infestation. They can produce up to three litters of six babies per year in the north and up to six litters of three babies yearly in the south. The first litter appears in March in the north, year-round elsewhere. The gestation period is 29 days. That’s only about 8 days more than a chicken egg takes to hatch!
Your backyard bunny’s primary concern is to eat without being eaten, a difficult task given that rabbits are relished by more than two dozen species of predators. Nibbling your petunias is not a carefree picnic but a danger-fraught mission. However, if your neighborhood bunny can squeeze through a hole in your garden fence, it will find time to be able to munch in safety.
You can check our tips for keeping your plants safe from rabbits, but try to regard rabbits as Beatrix Potter did—part of a peaceful, pastoral landscape. Then protect the plants that you and the bunnies really love, and don’t worry about the rest.
How to Identify Rabbits in Your Garden
Of the nine species of North American cottontail rabbits, the eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) that is our most abundant and annoying. Ranging from Boston to Boulder and south into Mexico, this bunny-about-town is rarely found in forests, preferring instead brushy fence rows, field edges, brush piles, and—you guessed it—landscaped backyards. Its fondness for flowers, vegetables, bark, and bulbs often results in pruned peppers and clipped cosmos.
Even though its nicknames are adorable (among them bunny, bunny rabbit, and cottontail), and you’ll probably want to befriend it once you see its cute ears, the eastern cottontail can be a bothersome pest. It is gray or brownish, with a short tail and big ears. It can weigh 2 to 4 pounds, be 15 to 19 inches long, and live for 12 to 15 months. Its vocal call is almost silent, but it will emit a scream when threatened. Its famous features include a short white tail resembling a cotton ball and long, tapered ears.
Security is a pile of brush, leaves, or another animal’s abandoned burrow for an eastern cottontail. Unlike their European cousins, these rabbits do not dig intricate burrows or warrens but make do with what they find. Rabbits rarely leave their shelters in broad daylight, preferring early morning or evening instead. Like most animals, they are sensitive to the change in day length as spring approaches. For rabbits, the longer days signal the start of two things: breeding season and spring dining.
Rabbit Damage
Rabbits are voracious eaters and leave clean-cut damage. Check the leaves and stems of your plants for cleanly cut damage; insects and other pests usually leave jagged edges on damaged plants. This clean-cut damage often happens at ground level, as rabbits tend to eat the yummy green shoots of tulips and other plants.
These low mowers graze close to the ground, sniff out the first tender young shoots, and crop them short. They love to munch on flowers, clover, peas, lettuce, beans, and more. Many of these plants are also the favorites of woodchucks or groundhogs, so check for burrows before deciding you have rabbit damage. Once your plants have passed the seedling stage, they are usually safe from rabbit damage.
Although bunny nibbling occurs in every season, it’s especially discouraging in the early spring when rabbits mercilessly munch the tender green shoots of plants. As a Connecticut gardener remembers, “My tulips were just poking through the snow when suddenly it looked like they’d been weed-whacked. Cut clean off! I blame the bunnies—their little paw prints were everywhere.”
Cute, yes. But behind those eyes lies an eternal hunger!
How to Prevent Rabbits in the Garden
The best way to keep rabbits out of the garden and prevent rabbit damage is through physical prevention methods such as fencing. Though we’ve mostly been discussing eastern cottontails, remember that these tips should work for any type of rabbit that loves to munch on your plants!
- The most effective way of keeping out rabbits is chicken wire fencing. Install a fence that is 4 feet high and bury it at least 6 inches deep. Bend the top foot of the fence away from the garden like a security fence so they can’t climb or jump over it.
- For bulbs, try a dome or cage of chicken wire secured over the bed.
- To begin with, focus on keeping rabbits from setting foot into your garden. Many old-time remedies rely on spreading various products around the garden’s perimeter, such as dried blood meal or human hair. Sprinkle dried blood meal on the surface around all your plants as early in the season as possible, and repeat after heavy rain. (Note: If you have dogs, don’t try this method because they might be attracted to the scent and start digging up your garden themselves!)
- Rabbits don’t like to stray far from their shelters, so try to reduce the possible rabbit homes around your yard. Rake away piles of brush and leaves, fill in abandoned burrows, and seal any holes under sheds or structures. If a rabbit doesn’t have a place to live or hide nearby, hopefully, it won’t stay and munch. Rabbits will also breed much more if they have a good habitat available—all the more reason to have no vacancy!
More Ways to Deter Rabbits in the Garden
Hardware
As mentioned above, the most effective solution is wire fencing. But also:
- Protect tree trunks: Use cylinders of 1/4-inch mesh hardware cloth to keep rabbits from nibbling on young fruit and landscape trees. The cylinders should extend higher than a rabbit’s reach while the rabbit is standing on the expected snow depth, and they should stand 1 to 2 inches out from the tree trunk.
- Protect patio plants: Some people protect plants with individual “collars” of tin cans or screening so that the plants may reach a less vulnerable size. Put the collar around each stem for protection.
Repellents
- Rabbits are such great sniffers, and there are several commercially available rabbit-repellent sprays that are nontoxic. They often use smelly ingredients such as rotten eggs to deter the furry creatures. Commercial products using pungent garlic oil are also worth a try.
- Some of the deer techniques related to odor are also said to work against rabbits.
- Irish Spring soap shavings placed in little drawstring bags around the garden have been said to help keep rabbits away.
- Rabbits also dislike the smell of onions, so try planting onions around your garden to further deter the furry creatures.
- One of our readers grows extra hot peppers, boils them in an old soup pot on the BBQ, and applies the liquid to the garden. Powdered red pepper sprinkled around the garden or on targeted plants also helps; you need to reapply after rainfall.
- Legend has it that rabbits are terrified of their own reflection, so try an old-time rabbit remedy and place large, clear glass jars of water throughout the garden. Garden centers sell ready-made reflectors, as well as other devices—crouching cats, fake snakes, menacing owls—designed to frighten bunnies away from your plants.
- You can also make your own spray! See recipe.
DIY Rabbit Repellent Spray
Make a bad-tasting rabbit cocktail by grinding together:
- 3 hot peppers
- 3 large onions
- 1 whole bunch of garlic.
Add water to cover, and place in a covered container overnight. Strain and add enough water to make a gallon of the mixture. Spray onto plants, repeating after rainfall.
Plants That Rabbits Dislike
According to bunny experts, rabbits have plant preferences based on taste, nutritional value, the presence of poison or prickles, and ease of availability. Their tastes in food can also vary by region and season, so not all plants work for all rabbits. Be tricky and tend plants that rabbits don’t find very appetizing.
Rabbits tend to avoid some of the same plants as deer and Japanese beetles. If you’d like to control all these pests, check our list of deer-resistant plants and the best and worst plants for Japanese beetles to know which plants might do best. Choose plants such as forsythia, lilac bush, zinnias, daffodils, lavender, and snapdragons for rabbits. This might help to reduce your rabbit population. This is not a guaranteed solution, as hungry rabbits will eat almost anything, but filling your garden with these plants might make your garden less appetizing than another one. Here are more plants that rabbits dislike:
WOODY PLANTS
Azalea (Rhododendron sp.)
Boxwood (Buxus sp.)
Bush cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa)
Butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii)
Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster sp.)
Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)
Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
Rhododendron (Rhododendron sp.)
Tatarian dogwood (Cornus alba)
Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
PERENNIALS
Adam’s needle (Yucca filamentosa)
Creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera)
Foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia)
Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina)
Meadow rue (Thalictrum rochebrunianum)
Peony (Paeonia hybrids)
Perennial salvia ‘East Friesland’ (Salvia x superba)
Primrose (Primula x polyantha)
Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ (Sedum)
Speedwell (Veronica sp.)
Spring cinquefoil (Potentilla verna)
Stokes’ aster (Stokesia laevis)
ANNUALS
Four o’clock flower (Mirabilis jalapa)
Geranium, zonal and bedding (Pelargonium x hortorum)
Mexican ageratum (Ageratum houstonianum)
Spiderflower (Cleome hasslerana)
Vinca (Catharanthus roseus)
Wax begonia (Begonia x semperflorens-cultorum)
BULBS
Daffodil (Narcissus sp.)
Hyacinth (Hyacinth orientalis)
Persian onion (Allium giganteum)
VEGETABLES
Asparagus
Leeks
Onions
Potatoes
Rhubarb
Summer squash
Tomatoes
HERBS
Basil
Marjoram
Mint
Oregano
Parsley
Savory
Tarragon
Do you have any tips for controlling rabbits in your garden or yard? Please post below!
Catherine Boeckmann
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I’ve tried a few thing...plastic netting with yellow flag markers under the net. Seems to be working. Will line my lilies with yellow marigolds. That worked last year. My final solution, as last resort if needed? Pour a half gallon of ammonia in a bucket, soak a length of jump rope type rope in the ammonia to absorb it and lay it through the garden in question. Worth a try.
Astrid,
Curious if your ammonia soaked rope worked. I have found that pure ammonia had no effect on the little #@&%. I've also used white vinegar which seemed to work pretty well, but it's hard to determine if during that time they moved to the buffet next door and then came back to our succulents and garden.
Soap shavings are next.
When hungry, they will eat almost anything except thorny plants like barberry and roses and that's not even guarenteed. String heavy duty fishing line at several heights around garden stakes and attach mesh deer fencing to it with twist ties. Bury about 6 inches into the ground for bunnies. Do not leave any openings unless you have a gate that's also covered.
Don't release bunnies in rural areas "far away" from you! You create problems for someone else. How selfish.
Do the plants come back after they have eaten the tops and half the stems off? First time at real gardening and they have eaten half of my plants....
Wrong about rabbits not eating marigolds...
I planted 4 different species of marigold from seed packets. The only type that wasn't growing well were my French vanilla hybrid marigolds. Out of about 50 seeds only 4 sprouts made it thru germination. Damn rabbits mowed down all 4 of those, plus about 3ft into my Mission Giant Yellow Marigolds.
I've tried all home remedies without success.
...any help would be greatly appreciated!
Hungry little bastards won't stop!!!
SAME! I wish i KNEW SOMETHING to keep them away
We have succulents and cacti planted outside and I have used pure ammonia and pure vinegar...separately.
The vinegar seems to have worked...over a month period. However, as I said in another reply, I can't be sure if it really repelled them or they just went next door for a while and then came back,
The ammonia did nothing. I sprayed it last night around the beds we have our front and at the base of bushes they like to sit under. This morning the little #$%@ were sitting right where I sprayed.
I think I'll try soap shavings next.
Several rabbits live in our neighborhood (Texas), and lucky me, neighbors on both sides of my lot have unkept side yards to shelter these pests. The rabbits eat and destroy our bermuda lawns. My backyard is sealed off, but my front yard has been re-sodded twice due to these pests' damage. my current lawn hasn't even had the chance to fully grow in from winter dormancy after being fully replaced 4 months ago. I have tried any commercial repellent consisting of dried blood, garlic, cloves, etc as well as red pepper and cayenne pepper, all without success. My HOA will not allow fencing in the front yard. Please help!
Cottontail rabbit is lean, mild, and very delicious. Super healthy too, they say. Whenever they start nibbling my plants, I just put them on the dinner plate. A well placed headshot with a .22 air rifle not only makes the job very clean, but is doesnt make the neighbors call the cops either!
Since the meat is very lean is dries out easily, so dont grill it or sear it with high, dry heat. I usually either put them in the over whole at 275 F over a bed of herbs and veggies, or I chop them up and make a nice stew with tomatoes.
