How can I keep rabbits from eating my plants? They eat everything:
vegetables, flowers, shrubs, ornamental grasses.
Hardiness Zone: 7b
Alicia from Raleigh, NC
HOT PEPPER: If you go to an Asian, Mexican or Chinese store you can usually buy large 1 pound bags of Crushed Red Pepper for fairly cheap. You can make a spray (a "tincture") to use in a large 2 gallon plant sprayer or a simple small hand sprayer, Just take any container (with a lid) that's large enough to hold the crushed red pepper you've bought, then barely cover the crushed red pepper, black pepper or cayenne pepper with any form of alcohol (like denatured or rubbing alcohol, vodka cost to much!) Just buy whatever kind of rubbing alcohol you can find on sale, then leave the Hot Pepper in the Alcohol for at least several days up to 2 weeks or more. The longer it sets, the stronger it gets.
NEXT: strain this alcohol/pepper tincture into a spray bottle or garden sprayer (you can add a bit of water if you want to make it go further) Next, spray this "Hot-Pepper Tincture" on to the plants that the rabbits like to eat. This hot pepper spray also works to keep cats & dogs & maybe deer out of your garbage & flower beds. In fact, I'm wondering if you can just buy the "Pepper-Spray" stuff you spray on Attackers & Thieves... It may cost more, but it might also work.
WARNING: Please use care! WEAR EYE PROTECTION or at least a pair of sun glasses. You don't want to splash this on you, or have the wind blow it into your eyes while you're spraying it & wash your hands REALLY GOOD after handling this stuff! You don't want to touch your eyes, your face or any place sensitive after handling this nasty stuff!
* The GOOD news is, it's not bad for the environment & you can wash it off of vegetables you are growing for food before you eat them without it hurting you... Just hose the veggies off before picking them, then wash again before cooking with them...
* The BAD news is, rain will was it away & you'll have to do it again & again. You may be able to just sprinkle pieces of crushed red peppers on top of the flower beds, but then I'd be afraid the wind could possibly blow it into your eyes... so I'd probably stick with the alcohol/pepper tincture spray.
---> A second option: is those noise makers & spinners that send noise into the ground.
,p>A third option: There's a thing called "Rabbit Scram"...
RABBIT SCRAM:
http://www.rabbitscram.com/Managing_rabbits_in_your_landscape.asp
A 4th idea: I've read that rabbits like to feed at night, so you might be able to put a motion detector in your garden with a flood light that comes on (or talk radio?) when the rabbits come near? Just a thought. (03/06/2008)
By Cyinda
I've heard (but haven't tried yet) that if you ask your barber/hair dresser for a bag of clippings & scatter it around your garden/plants, it will keep the critters away. Some thing about the human smell & the feel of it in their whiskers & mouth. I think I'm going to try it this year. (03/06/2008)
By doodles
I am infested with rabbits. They are cute but pests. I have tried the homemade Pepper spray. It works but you have to reapply it on the plants after the rain but it does work. (03/06/2008)
By
I do several things. Dog and cat hair, as well as human hair scattered about the garden (ask friends for animal hair and hair brush hair ) I also outline the perimeter with blood meal, (available at garden centers) and also figure that the little critters need a bite now and then too, so I put out lettuce and carrots in a spot as far away as I can from my other plants. I slow the squirrels done the same way...put treats out for them far away from my bird feeders and bulbs I have planted (they like to dig up and eat flower bulbs)
By Maggie
They are really easy to fence out. The fence only needs to be two feet tall, and farm stores sell that fencing. (03/07/2008)
Try planting marigolds. The scent is suppose to deter bunnies! Hope this helps. (03/07/2008)
By Kami Mergler
The fence is your best bet. Just make sure to bury about a foot of it underground to deter burrowing. The pepper spray seems to work but you have to constantly reapply it making it a lot of trouble. Although my sister seemed to think her rabbits enjoyed a spicy diet if memory serves me right. Or you could create a structure akin to a cold frame but covered with chicken wire and put it right over the vegetables - kind of like a mini fence. Good luck! (03/15/2008)
By Luna Llena Feliz
My master gardener neighbors suggest human urine. That is, the man of the house walks around the perimeter of the garden and "marks" it as his own territory, like a dog. I told him some things are definitely men's work. (04/11/2008)
By Janice C.
Grate up the original Irish Spring and scatter it around the beds. It lasts quite awhile if you don't have alot of rain. Don't know how Green it is, but it works. (04/14/2008)
By PrairieLady
Sorry, most of these ideas have not worked for me. The rabbits love the hot pepper spray and have eaten a new shrub down to the ground overnight. Then attacked coral bells in the same area (also sprayed), then the hydrangea. Garden store tried to tell me that they don't like these things. They must like the pepper spray. (05/27/2008)
By Pat
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