Are rabbits invading your garden and eating your plants? Rabbits love fruits, leaves, sprouts, and ornamental vegetation. Unfortunately, all of these are abundantly present in a garden. You must know how to prevent rabbits from eating plants before they cause serious damage to your yard.
Take note that you should only use humane methods in keeping the bunny away. While they are pesky plant eaters, they still play a crucial role in our ecosystem.
Below, we discuss some methods that you can try to stop the eating spree of rabbits around your garden.
How to prevent rabbits from eating plants
Having rabbits eating your plants in the garden can be frustrating, but there are many workarounds you can try. Here are some of the humane solutions that are proven to yield results:
1. Strengthen your fences
The first thing you have to do is to block the rabbit’s entry point to your property. Overall, rabbits can be deterred by a fence at least 3 feet high, so it will be wise to make your fence slightly taller than this. Aside from that, a higher fence will prevent other stray animals from wandering into your property.
As much as possible, choose metal fencing as rabbits can chew on fiberglass, wood, and plastic. Chain link fences are the cheapest yet most effective option here. Make sure that you have it painted or coated to prevent rusting.
When installing a chain-link fence, leave at least 4 to 6 inches of length at the bottom. Bend this length at a 90-degree angle and bury it at least 6 inches underground. This will make it impossible for wild rabbits to squeeze their way into your garden.
If you have metal gates, place a flashing underneath, so there wouldn’t be gaps rabbits can use as an entryway.
2. Put up barriers around vegetables and flowers
Next, it’s important to protect your vegetables and ornamental plants. Targeted coverage is the most effective, which means you’ll cover the vegetation rabbits like.
You can create a wooden frame and then wrap wire mesh around it. Make sure that the bottom of the wire mesh is staked into the ground.
Overall, a ¾” mesh fencing is the most effective. But if you don’t want to go through the hassle of DIY fencing, you can purchase greenhouse hoops and then just install the mesh on them.
Remember that you should never use nylon mesh for the cover. Rabbits can easily gnaw this material and access your plants. Metal is always the foolproof solution.
3. Place a wire fence around your tree trunks
Aside from securing your veggies and flowering plants, you should also secure your trees. As mentioned earlier, rabbits also consume tree bark.
As with the previous step, you can make a mesh wire fence around your tree trunk. Make sure that it’s a few inches away from the trunk and about 2 to 3 feet tall.
4. Use scare devices
Another way to prevent rabbits from pestering your plants is by using scare devices. However, you should know that the efficacy of this method depends on how eager and desensitized the rabbits in your area are.
You can make DIY scare devices using flashy CDs or sparkly streamers. The light reflecting from these items can confuse rabbits and potentially drive them away. Also, these shiny things are more effective if they are hanging and fluttering in the air.
Aside from that, you can use air horn sounds, though this might be an issue for your next-door neighbor.
Moreover, you can install motion-activated water sprinklers in your yard. This will trigger once the sensor detects motion. However, make sure that you install it away from foot traffic to prevent unnecessary detections.
To make your scare tactics more effective at night, you can use motion-activated sensor lights. The sudden flashes of light will surely send a rabbit running.
Overall, make sure that you switch up the scare devices, so the rabbits won’t get used to it.
5. Remove tall grasses and shrubs
It’s also important to remove anything that could give rabbits cover. This means removing tall grasses and trimming bushes. You should also trim your vines and shrubs where rabbits may hide.
Since there is no vegetation to keep them hidden, rabbits will feel unsafe eating in your yard. Still, you should pair this with other methods discussed here to ensure that the rabbits won’t go back to your property.
6. Spray coyote urine or blood meal
Rabbits avoid places with the scent of their predators. You can use this fact to your advantage to keep the bunnies off your plants.
There’s artificial coyote urine you can purchase, which is an artificial formulation mimicking the scent of the rabbit’s predator. Spray this near your plants and along your fences to scare off rabbits.
7. Use a homemade rabbit repellent
If you don’t want to spend money on commercial solutions, you can make a homemade rabbit deterrent. There are many rabbit repellent recipes you can try like the following:
- Pepper repellent. For this, you need to mix crushed red peppers, cloves, water, and dish soap. Place the mixture in a jug then leave it under the sun for two days until the water has evaporated and the solution is concentrated. Spray this on areas where rabbits may go.
- Tabasco repellent. You can mix tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, water, and dishwashing soap. Spray it around your yard, but avoid applying it directly to plants.
- Linseed oil repellent. Simply mix dish detergent, linseed oil, and water. Make sure that you use a larger part of linseed oil than the water and detergent.
Whichever of these solutions you use, make sure that you re-apply it after a rainfall. The rain will wash out the rabbit repellent, which will make it ineffective in deterring rabbits from your plants.
8. Grow plants rabbits hate
Aside from placing barriers and repellents, you can also grow plants that rabbits hate. Some of the best options are lavender, peony, sage, snapdragons, and lobelia. Herbs like rosemary, chives, and oregano are also effective in discouraging rabbits from getting into your garden.
The good thing is that these plants will add beauty to your vegetable garden. You can also use herbs for cooking meals.
Overall, any plant with a strong scent will likely repel a rabbit. It’s because bunnies have a strong sense of smell and they can get overwhelmed by odors easily.
Still, you should only consider this as a complementary solution to the problem. Aside from planting the mentioned plants, you should still focus on physical barriers as that one works the most.
9. Let your cat or dog watch the yard
It will also help to leave your pet dog or cat roaming in your yard for a few hours a day. Domesticated cats and dogs would have fun chasing over trespassing bunnies in your garden. Also, the smell and mere presence of your pets might be enough to deter rabbits from entering your yard.
Nevertheless, you should never leave your pets unattended in the yard for too long. Also, you should only let them roam when it’s not too hot as both dogs and cats can suffer from heatstroke.
Lastly, you should consider putting a GPS tracker or virtual fence on your yard. This is in case your cat or dog tries to climb over the fence.
10. Divert the rabbits
If your area has a large rabbit population, diverting the bunnies might be the best trick. You can do this by planting weeds, tall grasses, and other rabbit-favorite plants away from your property.
While this will not stop a rabbit from going after your veggies, the weed patch will be their first stop for feeding. This will also help divert their feeding habits away from your garden. You can also dedicate a specific part of your garden for rabbit feeding while covering your other plants.
Take note that rabbits are easily contented with food that is easily accessible. As long as they have food nearby, they won’t be persistent to go after your prized vegetables and fruit-bearing plants.
Remember that modifying your yard alone isn’t enough to deter rabbits. While it may confuse the bunnies for a while, they can easily find a new spot on your property once you’re done mixing things up. Diversion is the key.
Final words
Knowing how to prevent rabbits from eating plants will save you from the frustration. Just remember that you should only use humane methods to keep the bunnies away. As much as they can be pesky at times, these creatures are existing for a reason.
You can also consult an animal control service if your efforts aren’t working. They can advise you on how to deal with the bunny problem properly.