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drloyd

Rabbits

drloyd
10 years ago

From time to time, Zeedman has posted about rabbit damage to his beans. That did not seem to be a problem here. I had a realistic looking plastic owl on a post overlooking the garden and last winter it broke in a storm.

A week ago, the rabbits discovered my garden. They did not care about peas, cabbage or broccoli but they went after the beans which had one set of true leaves and a small growing tip. They would eat the true leaves and sometimes the growing tip. They took out a trellis of Hazard Fall beans leaving only two intact. They also took out a couple of Red Eye Greasy plants and several of other types.

I put out traps baited with apples and carrots with no success so far. I also bought a new owl and this morning there were a couple rabbits frolicking around the base of its pole.

So far, shooting them is the only option that seems to work.

There has been no more damage in the last few days and many of the damaged plants are valiantly trying to grow their second set of true leaves on otherwise bare stalks. I do not hold out much hope for those. - Dick

Comments (17)

  • hementia8
    10 years ago

    Most folks around here use Milorgonite to repel deer and also as a fertilizer
    As much as it stinks it ought to repel rabbts also
    I would think spraying the ajoining area with ammnia would also work
    I spray my yard with 10 percent ammonia before I plant to kill off slugs
    It turns to a soluable nitrogen source in a few days.
    Charlie

    This post was edited by hementia8 on Tue, Jun 4, 13 at 14:40

  • drloyd
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you Charlie. There seems to be a lot of evidence for both remedies. - Dick

  • seysonn
    10 years ago

    Nylon tulle is another method other than DOGS, GUNS, TRAPS, CHASING AND YELLING....d:

    Or: How about setting up a nice table for them with some fresh carrots? They also love Fenugreek.

    Seriously , on FENUGREEK, it can be co-planted in the spaces between the beans. So that you use some and the rabbits eat some and the soil gets some free nitrogen too.

  • drloyd
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you seysonn. Fenugreek sounds better than the nuclear device I was considering! :-D

  • drloyd
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I finally settled on Milorganite and bird scare tape streamers.

    The plants that were missing the first true leaves but still had the growing tip appear to be recovering some. The second true leaves are actually larger on some plants than those on the plants that were not damaged.

  • murkey
    10 years ago

    DH finally rigged up a chicken wire fence around the beans. It makes them somewhat hard to reach ( have to climb over it , and watch where I step to work the middle of the bed ), but it seems to be the only thing to keep the rabbits out. The only other thing they like to eat is the Swiss Chard, but they hide in the potatoes and have the plants beaten down in the center of the bed.
    That stupid dog of ours likes to chase them,but she hasn't caught one yet. .
    Saw several baby rabbits out there now, so we may have to get more chicken wire . A few years ago DH got some "rabbit proof" plastic fencing and put it around the whole garden, then I watched out my kitchen window as a rabbit stood on it's hind legs and chewed a hole in it. I was so mad, I got out the air gun. Missed the rabbit but put a hole in the shed.

  • drloyd
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Our cat catches and eats the smaller ones but the adults are too fast.

    It looks like the bird scare tape and Milorganite may be working. Or maybe it was the air rifle. Even the Hazard Fall beans may recover.

  • drloyd
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I mentioned that the rabbits ate the first true leaves off of an entire trellis of Hazard Fall beans leaving only two plants intact. The rest were very sad looking bare stalks with a tiny bud at the tip. Fourteen feet of disaster.

    As of today the damaged plants are climbing fine and look very similar to the two that were not damaged. - Dick

  • zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
    10 years ago

    The year that I had the most damage to my beans, I attributed it to rabbits, because I often saw a couple fat rabbits leaving my rural garden (or visible nearby) when I arrived. It turned out that most of the damage was done by this fellow:

    {{gwi:12013}}

    My gardens are now fenced high for deer, and with chicken wire low to keep out the rabbits. Occasionally a rabbit gets in late in the season (usually to have a brood), but except for soybeans - which they will destroy - the damage is generally minor. At the first sign of major damage, I break out the live trap... I've caught two ground hogs so far.

  • drloyd
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    No rabbit damage so far but something is pulling up bean plants. They/it only does the ones in peat pots. It pulls them up and leaves them lying there peat pot and all. - Dick

  • dlsm
    9 years ago

    If you guys think rabbits are a problem you should have a few hundred of my squirrels. They shell cowpeas faster than a machine can. They also love lima beans, tomatoes or any vegetables. We are not allowed to discharge a fire arm where I live and they are to smart to go into a trap. They also won't eat rat poison. I'm desperate.

    Luther

  • zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
    9 years ago

    "No rabbit damage so far but something is pulling up bean plants. They/it only does the ones in peat pots. It pulls them up and leaves them lying there peat pot and all. - Dick"

    Squirrels and chipmunks do that here... and only to the transplants placed in pots, never those in the ground. Never could figure out why, it almost seems like a territorial thing, that they smell recently disturbed soil & feel compelled to investigate. To judge by their reaction times, they must be checking all of my pots daily. ;-) Don't know why plants put into the garden don't get the same reaction.

    I put a small chicken wire cage around the pot after planting to discourage that behavior. Once established, I can remove the cage, and the plants will not be disturbed. Maybe eaten by deer, but not dug up by squirrels.

    This post was edited by zeedman on Wed, Jul 16, 14 at 0:00

  • drloyd
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hmm. Our bird feeders do attract large numbers of squirrels...

  • SgtKarl
    9 years ago

    I had rabbits eating my English Peas this year. Got a spray product called "Liquid Fence" from my garden supply store. Spray it directly on the plant and the little rodents will not come anywhere near.

    Karl

  • yolos - 8a Ga. Brooks
    9 years ago

    Are you sure you are supposed to spray the Liquid Fence on the plants. I had a rabbit problem last year and bought either liquid fence or that other popular spray. I e-mailed the manufacturer asking how long after spraying could you harvest vegetables. I received a reply that stated it was not intended to be sprayed on the plant. ???? But not positive it was liquid fence (could have been the other popular spray and the name escapes this old brain right now).

  • Summer_Squash
    9 years ago

    This is a very unconventional way to look at it... but...

    I have a dog. She sheds quite a bit. I brush her quite a bit. About a month ago I decided to take the fur and put it in a bag rather than let it sprawl all over my yard and look like some sort of weird fungus once it gets wet. I was just going to throw out the bag, but I guess I never did (it can't be that I couldn't possibly throw away such a soft, oh my god, soft bag of fluff). I had put a fence up around my garden to keep the rabbits away from my cauliflower, which they were going all out on.

    Wasn't working. The baby rabbits were leaping through holes in the fence, even though they were 2''x1'' holes... gosh.

    I heard that rabbits smell very well, and of course, seeing as my dog has killed multiple rabbits, they are terrified of her.

    So... rather desperately... I put dog hair around the cauliflower.

    Oh my gosh.

    It WORKED!

    Just a thought.

  • hemnancy
    9 years ago

    I have 2x4" welded wire fence around my vegetable beds to keep deer out, and once I spooked an adult rabbit and it was stuck anterior to its hind legs in the fence, I was nice and pulled the wire apart to let it out. So it seems to be very young rabbits that succeed in getting through the wire unless I leave the gate open. It's only happened a couple of years, but is happening now, I saw the small rabbit. I have only a small amount of some heirloom seeds so they are in danger of not reproducing so I wouldn't have any seed stock for next year.:-( Anyway I put plastic mesh and chicken wire around one bed, they were still getting through, I'm adding more chicken wire, and one bed I put plastic sheet around the entire bed a couple of feet high and weighed down with branches, that bed seems not to be suffering any more damage.

    As for heaving plants out of the ground, voles or possibly moles seem to resent my planting stuff where they want to make a surface tunnel so sometimes heave the plant out of the ground from below, a compact rootbound plant usually.
    I have a lot of vole problems, often they come up under plants and bite through the pole bean stems of even large vines. I put lava rock in the planting hole and also nails into the ground next to the seeds, and wrap the stem for 9" with aluminum foil. Last year in a bad vole bed they nipped the stems off above the foil for the first time ever.

    I've trapped squirrels, both tree and ground types, many times in a havahart trap, I use peanut butter on bread for bait. I planted a lot of nut trees here and don't get any nuts, but it keeps them busy so they haven't bothered anything but apples in late fall after all the nuts are gone, and they try to jump on our suet bird feeders. I'm trying to catch the rabbit, I've been using apple which disappears but the trap has not sprung. It's not my usual trap, maybe it is not sensitive enough.

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