Sorry to hear of your bunny problems. I'll count my blessings in that I don't recall seeing a single rabbit since I moved here 6 years ago.

Wayne

Oh, and hi littlefrog! Not used to seeing you over here!

Wayne

I have noticed a lot more rabbit action as well. They have decimated my newly planted royal ferns and Christmas ferns and hit the carrot bed hard. Suddenly the arrogance of Bugs Bunny's whattsup doc routine really means something to me, and for the first time--pacifist that I am--I'm seeing Elmer Fudd's perspective in a new light!!

I put chicken wire around the newbie ferns and that seems to have helped. And I fenced in the carrots--a private fencing area--and that too seems OK so far...but after 3 years of seeing very few, if any rabbits, I am seeing them every where these days.

I'm seeing more around this year, I've got my garden pretty well walled off but I've noticed them in other places. Maybe this is the coyotes time to shine.

wayne- Thanks for the welcome! I don't know that many people who love gardening in my area. I'm so glad I found this forum.

I haven't seen a rabbit here in years.I guess I'm lucky. We used to have them,and they were often seen as road kill,but I haven't seen that in years either.I guess the foxes and coyotes did their job well.

Nancy
Chazy,NY(northern Clinton County)

When we bought this house there was a fat rabbit chewing all of my plants. After he was done eating, he would lie next to the bed in the sun. Sort of reminded me of people after Thanksgiving dinner. Anyway, what I did was make a hot pepper tea. I used hot pepper flakes (bought at the dollar store most likely), I put a couple of tablespoons of the flakes in a 2 liter pop bottle and filled it with water. I let it steep in the sun and then strained the pepper flakes while pouring it into my watering can. I watered everything with this "tea" and the bunny never came back. If it rains, you have to water with the tea again. It worked for me and was so simple.

good trick, gaitedhorse--gonna try that!
but the image of the sleepy, full-bellied bunny is priceless!!

I haven't noticed any more than usual this year. I did notice, though, that they weren't giving me sufficient respect - they wouldn't even bother to run away when I walked outside. Can't have that, so I bought a slingshot. Now they run.

We are kinda overrun this year but seems like the damage is minimal aside from them mowing down any vine i tried to grow...but saw a very strange colored bunny the other night a very light brown and found out some idiot in the area must have let go a bunch of domestic rabbits and our animal control officer thinks they may have mated with the wild bunnies so it will be interesting...but i am overrun with voles this year and they have been pretty bold...set some sticky traps out but no luck may try the hot pepper.

Heh. We were overrun with voles three summers ago, until my dog decided she could catch them and "make them squeak." Squeal in terror is more like it, but problem solved. She has a soft spot for rabbits, however, so we still have those. One tore out of the flower bed (it's rather dense) when I pulled a tall weed that hadn't been visible until the false indigo flopped over the other day, and startled both me and the dog.

Lost my husky two years ago and she was great keeping the yard in check... kinda overrun right now... miss the damn dog like crazy but not ready for another yet... 3 huskies in 30 years...kinda liking the break of no more hair, no more digging, no more spring clean-up(you dog owner's know what i mean) but will never say never. Put the sticky traps out for the voles on Sunday and nary a one!

Those voles seem to know about traps. Last year they were eating my peppers until I put a trap out for them (btw, the snap traps are much more humane than a glue trap). However, my voles avoided the peppers once the trap was out. Little sons-a-guns KNEW. My outdoor cat was not doing her job at the time. Getting old. But this year a neighbor's cat has decided to make this his local hash house and he drops in, has breakfast, and does a little vole hunting. I guess this has shamed my cat into hunting voles again too. She has no fangs anymore but has nevertheless caught and eaten most of three of them in the past two weeks. She was always an ace hunter. Between her and the mooch, they have really cut the vole population way down.

As to the rabbits, I have not noticed more than last year, just basically the same rabbit (I think) who always patrols my foxglove bed looking to attack the poppies when their guard is down. It favors the rarer varieties that are so hard to raise, ya know. I have found that if you mark your planting areas on a regular basis that rabbits will not eat those plants. Works well if you remember to do it.

OTOH, I do have a very bold groundhog this year. So far it has not touched the garden, but I did catch it going over to check it out the other day. Usually I can live in peace with groundhogs, because they seem to prefer broadleaf weeds.