The just recognize the "No Wabbit" symbol.

In the infamous words of Yosemite Sam, I hates rabbits!

We have been having bunnies in our yard just about every morning lately. Our dog loves to chase them as soon as I let her out - luckily (or unluckily, depending on your viewpoint ;^) ), they are faster than her! I just hope they don't present a problem for us once we get vege plants in the garden going!

Marj

Wascally wabbits! (a la Elmer Fudd).
I'll never forgive them for chowing to nothing a few new plants of mine last year.
Sorry to hear that your bunnies are illiterate.

Wabbit season!

Dan

Dan - You need to ask the nursery that sold you "rabbit-proof" plants for a refund! Of course, that won't happen. Sorry the rabbits in your neighborhood are illiterate - another failure of the USA school system... :-D

One of the few good things about living in the immediate Denver-metro area - no rabbits or deer in my neighborhood. We just have to deal with the human variety of vandals and thieves.... :-/

Holly

I can believe the deer may not be there. But to not have rabbits surprises me. I have seen them in yards in the Wash Park Neighboorhood. Heck they are outside my office on Wadsworth and Hampden a very built up commercial area.

I think the rabbit population relates to the population of cats and dogs. Neighborhoods with more cats and dogs seem to have fewer rabbits. My neighborhood where almost everyone has a dog (or 3) and or a cat there are almost no rabbits to be seen. The only rabbit that has come around was a domesticated one and made friends with my cat. Picture quality isn't that good as it was taken with old cell phone.

Another interesting observation, foxes vs. coyotes. When we lived in Obs. Park there were plenty of foxes but no bunnies. Now we have coyotes traipsing through our yard and tons of bunnies! We'll see how a pet dog affects the equation in May. I'll be looking into bunny-proof plants and will also try growing an area of low-care native grass and wildflowers for them to munch on away from the beds. Hopefully that will help?! good luck!

We've tracked fox thru the neighborhood and watched one hunt a mouse and catch it. We're too close to Plains Conservation area for cats to survive long - too many buteos and accipiters; last year BH watched a great horned owl try for a little purse dog being walked by a woman.

I put out blood meal yesterday and the crocus I missed were pulled out of the ground today. I haven't seen a bunny in a while, as I throw things at them, so I doubt the pellet gun then the stew pot would help.

Dan

Yeah, those rabbits can be sneaky and elusive! I think that's what got my sunflowers last year. Hmmm ... your bringing up a stew pot, Dan, reminds me ...

I knew I shoulda made a left toin at Albacoiky!

Dan

I can believe the deer may not be there. But to not have rabbits surprises me. I have seen them in yards in the Wash Park Neighboorhood. Heck they are outside my office on Wadsworth and Hampden a very built up commercial area.

Well, I certainly haven't seen any rabbits or sign of rabbits here. We seem to have foxes in the neighborhood, lots of dogs and cats as well (one of my cats disappeared - he was a big guy, too, and I'm thinking maybe a fox or coyote got him. :-( ) so maybe, as others have speculated, the bunnies stay away!

Holly

Speaking of bunnies, DH and I ventured outside to the yard this weekend to find "Curious George" digging a burrow in front of our porch right where our retaining wall is getting built! We started calling him Curious George because he would be bounding around us while we were digging around the yard last fall. We can tell it's the same bunny because of a notch in his left ear. My MIL thinks it's a she and not a he since she is making a nest to prepare for little bunlets. I feel terrible that I had to collapse and cover her burrow only to have her try several more times digging. I felt even worse this morning when she again dug her burrow and I had to collapse it. So far I have no plant for them to chomp on. Maybe my tune will change when I begin to grow stuff and find them chomped off.

Ding dang me! The next day, I totally felt bad and decided to let mother nature take over besides that area would be the last corner we would be building so it was no surprise Georgette decided to begin digging again...only this time she dug half way and was interrupted by 3 other bunnies. I haven't seen her for the last 2 days only to find out today that bunnies apparently begin nest building within days of giving birth! Now I feel completely awful! I hope she built another nest that is safe because obviously she must have had her little bunnies elsewhere. I am a complete ignorant ding bat now!

What is an effective deterrent for the bunnies? Is it blood meal that they don't like?

We'll be putting our plastic fence back up around the garden, even though it was totally effective keeping our dog out. We just haven't wanted to put up a permanent fence - like the more open look of the yard after the growing season. I think some bunnies got in to the garden last year, and that's what nibbled on my Sunflowers. But nothing else really seemed to get touched, so don't know for sure.

I've seen bunnies in the backyard this year, which I didn't before, so worried we may have a problem soon once we plant. They are so cute, but won't look that way any longer if I have to compete with them for our veges!!!

Marj

I did some web searching and found a post on another site with a list of plants they say bunnies don't like. Any ever tried these plants as rabbit deterrents? Might try some, along with some other methods, and see what happens!

Iris
Day lilies
Peonies
Manardas
All sages
Lamb ear
Sedums
Allyum family
Daffs
Hyacinths
Zinnias
marigolds
sweet allysum
moss rose

Any other plants you know of that keep the bunnies at bay?!

Marj

Oops, kinda forgot this is how this whole thread started! Guess I got distracted by the Loony Toons and the mama bunny pics :^D

Dan - are these any of the plants you tried where the bunnies didn't read they weren't suppose to like them?!

Marj

They don't chew those plants in our front yard, Marj. It is interesting that some places say they don't eat crocus, others say they love it. And many of the early non-established plants were browsed - now, however, they now are not getting eaten (save the crocus). I've marked them, spreading blood meal, and will dig up and plant in the backyard. Sigh. I guess no early crocus for the folks walking by.

Dan

From the other site where the list was posted, it sounded like they were saying that if these plants were planted as a perimeter, they would keep the bunnies away from the other plants. I wonder if that actually works?!

In my yard the bunnies hop over what they don't eat to get to what they do. This past winter they did a number on the front yard, as they had little to eat with the drought. Sadly, some dim-bulbs up the street keep their grass green and cleared of snow for the bunnies, so we have a sizable population. Its good for raptor watching, though...

Dan

I kinda thought that was too good to be true, and imagined that's probably what the bunnies would do. Oh well, guess I try blood meal, etc. and maybe try to sturdy up the fence better.

Thanks,
Marj

Blood meal keeps them off. Expensive remedy.

Dan

You can also use the universal pest repellant home-made spray with an egg and teaspoon of chicken bouillon - whip it up in a blender, strain it into a gallon sprayer - it can be more concentrated that that - and spray it all over. This stops deer and rabbits. Raccoons, not so much.

Thanks David - I may try that! I also found a resource for some other ideas as well - like Irish Spring soap (had heard that was good to deter deer as well, and when I was at Safeway tonight saw they had a pack of 8 bars for less than $3, so I went ahead and picked up a pack), used cat litter (our cat may finally have a use! ;^D ), plastic snakes, human hair (my husband is a barber, so may ask him to start bringing the leftovers home), etc. Here's the page: If Rabbits Dig Your Garden Too Much.

Marj

A couple years ago, I planted 700 tulip, crocus, and daffodil bulbs. The following spring, I discovered that with the exception of the daffodils, I had created a salad buffet for the little frickers.

I tried all the home remedies, the blood meal, the dog hair, the coyote and other urine (granules), pepper sprays, owls, and water deterrents. With none of those working, I was going to try killing a few rabbits and either staking them to the trees at he property boundaries or burying them. The logic of this was along the same lines of what you hear about grasshoppers. If grasshoppers ae invading your flower beds, get your hands on some, blend them up in a blender and sprinkle them at the perimeter of your flower beds. You won't have to worry again. They can sense the dead ones and will not enter.

I was wondering if the same would work with bunnies. Relax, I didn't kill any. If I staked them on the trees, birds and such would have gotten to them, and if I buried them, dogs would dig them up. I was at my wits end. Short of fencing off every flower bed, I wasnt sure what to do.

That's when I discovered the rabbit repellant made by the folks at the liquid fence company. I was in a garden store and saw their money back guarantee. I asked the clerk and she told me the really meant it.

I tried it, and bang! No more rabbit munchings. I'm going on my second year using it and it really does work. I love my tulips! This year, I bought a gallon of the dual action concentrate to keep on hand. It's about $125, but it will keep your plants safe. A gallon will do the average home probably for 3 years. I have a large property and will get about 2.

I give you my word, it really does work and they do stand behind it!

Disclaimer: I in no way work for them, get compensated by them or am affiliated with them whatsoever. I just live the stuff. It will smell for a day or so until it dries.

Thanks for the tip, Bob! Wow, sounds like it really does work. I'll look for it myself!!

I did pick up some plastic snakes at the dollar store - I figured, at a buck a piece (I got 6), it'd be worth a shot. When I got them home, I discovered they are the kind that if you soak them in water, after 96 hours they are supposed to get 600% the size! Now the normal size of the snakes is about 12 inches, so I'm gonna have some whoppers if I soak them like they say!!!!!!!! Maybe that WOULD discourage those pesky rabbits :^D

Marj

I came home yesterday to find my baby kale plants chewed to nothing. Gone! Musta been the bunnies from Dan's yard, LOL! They had to climb up onto my porch to get to them too.

You can add mizuna and arugula to the rabbit-repellent list. Those were right next to the kale but were left untouched.

We've had stew but the snow-in-summer (not a typo) still gets a munch. No tulip munching in front. I've marked the crocus and they're getting moved to the back. Everything else seems to be growing out of the bunny-munching stage except the snow-in-summer we started from seed and one from the nursery.

Dan