Rabbits in the Garden

You have to use repellants on your veggies (the rotten egg kind of stuff). But it has to be put on after heavy rains again. You may have to use rabbit fencing around your veggie garden-- it has to go down into the ground about 6-12"" to prevent them from digging underneath it.

Rabbit fencing is the only real answer. A natural solution is to get a pair of red tailed hawks nesting in your neighborhood. A few years ago we had tons of rabbits then a pair of hawks set up a nest in a neighbor's tree and the rabbit population went away. I haven't even seen any rabbits this year, but now we've added coyotes (in southern New Jersey) to our wildlife mix and I suspect they're helping keep the population in check.

Fencing, or you could try adding a second lower hot wire.

Thank you for your replies.

JustJazzMom, I got some repellant today, and we will see how it works.

Gardenman, we use to see coyotes all the time up here, and haven't in several months, I think this probably has something to do with it.

Jaxs mom, I guess if the repellant does not work we may if to run a lower wire of hot wire, or get some rabbit fencing.

Thanks again, hopefully something will work.

Poor little bunnies.

On 6/16/2014 gardenman said:

Rabbit fencing is the only real answer. A natural solution is to get a pair of red tailed hawks nesting in your neighborhood. A few years ago we had tons of rabbits then a pair of hawks set up a nest in a neighbor's tree and the rabbit population went away. I haven't even seen any rabbits this year, but now we've added coyotes (in southern New Jersey) to our wildlife mix and I suspect they're helping keep the population in check.

Oh yikes! Coyotes.......and I thought only WE were so lucky................

Good Question we have the same problem. We have problems with rabbits & squirrels. Last year a squirrel ate our zucchini plants. We looked out the window one day & saw it eating the zucchini. I ran out & chased it off. Later I saw it out there again. Had totally ate the whole plant & was in a hole it had dug & was eating roots & all of the zucchini. We had no zucchini last year. So far this year it's doing great. The rabbits or squirrels ate all the okra plants this year when they came up so DH planted some more. So far all the plants are growing. Some years the rabbits eat all the buds off my Stella D'Oro Daylilies. DH wants to put chain link fence around the garden area. I told him that would not do any good since rabbits could squeeze through & squirrels could get through or climb over. DH even tried cayenne pepper which did not help. I hope whichever ate all the okra plants had a hot mouth after eating all the okra plants. LOL!!! We did not have a rabbit problem until our moron neighbor brought them home from the family farm & populated them in his house & lets them loose in the neighborhood.

It has to be something small like chicken wire. I am always amazed when they can squeeze through a tiny chain link fence. They must be all hare!

This is mating season and I have seen many babies in my yard this week.

My Mom used to plant marigolds to keep pests away- the scent kept the garden in tact. Don't know if it would work with rabbits- we never had a problem with them and rabbits were all over the place too!