Our resident hawk ate a bird over our car last night -- feathers everywhere -- yuck. I wish he would stick to waabbits. I have ugly fences within fences, use bloodmeal and forgot to pick up some hair trimmings at the barbers last time. The anti repellant stuff is expensive and needs to be reapplied after it rains.

Several years have past since our neighbor's daughter lost her floppy eared waabitt. Perhaps it is time to get her interested in potting waabits.

The best way to keep rabbits off young roses is to use a fence. I made a bunch of small fences using chicken wire wrapped around a tomato cage. That worked better than the sprays. You don't need to leave it up all year, just long enough that they don't look so appetizing to the rabbits.

Rabbits are attracted to newly planted things, especially the, different smell of the new plants. Being curious, they take a bite. And they keep going. Rabbits and deer will keep returning to a food source until it's gone.

Repel, protect or kill them -- all work, the latter two are the most effective. Bribing them with other food sources don't work, in fact, you wind up with more rabbits.

Yep, a cage or fence is what you need. I've a MAJOR wildlife problem. ~barbie

Bunny Guard!

{{gwi:265561}}

Well, I used to raise rabbits so I personally would have no problem eating the little buggers- seems fair turnabout but they are too old an probably tough by the looks of them. Besides, my greenie neighbors would probably have a cow if I did and they found out.

Thanks for all the tips on fences. I won't be able to get to a hardware store for a few days but maybe I'll put my plastic winter collars around the new plants for now. Just have to stake them down good as we get a lot of wind.

If I had greenie neighbors I would eat rabbit stew in my lawn chair right by the fence.

triple_b,
LOL, great idea :)

This is a rather primitive idea, but I cut branches off a tree that needed to be pruned and put them in a circle around the plants that were being bothered. I stacked them up to a height of about a foot. I think the animals (rabbits and squirrels in my case) don't like going near something where they're not sure of their footing and the loose branches make them uncomfortable. So far it's worked and it didn't cost a thing!

Ingrid

Get 2 foot tall chickenwire or hardware cloth at home depot and cut it into 5 foot pieces with wirecutters. Wire each cylinder together at three places. Put over roses and anchor in place with sticks. I got sick of losing money when the rabbits killed my roses. That bunny guard in the above picture is exactly right. Leave it on all year as rabbits eat even mature roses in the winter.

Get a dog! LOL

My two dogs will EAT anything that dares to come into our yard!!

Carol

Pellet guns work well. Scientific data confirms that dead rabbits rarely bother young plants.

harryshoe you just made the statement just ahead of me.
I call it lead poison. They die easy.

this may be useful sometime.

Here is a link that might be useful: recipes for rabbits.

LOL, you all crack me up.

Wish I wasn't right in the middle of main street or the pellet gun idea would be perfect...you know, not only greenie neighbors but anti-gun crowd too. I'd rather not explain myself to the sheriff, though he's a good conservative supporting the right to bare arms.

I have a shotgun and I'm told a previous and rather notorious lady lived in my house who regularly used her shotgun on the neighborhood dogs if they used her lawn....even when they were with their owners. She thought she was decendent from the outlaw Belle Starr though I proved that wrong with a little research...makes fun town folklore though.

try a slingshot. My dad is a bird lover and has feeders and bird houses everywhere. I think he stopped this practice but he DID have a slingshot by the french doors with ammo in case anything threatened 'his' birds.

They will come back. After coddling a band of fragran cloud all summer I finally planted it. A couple weeks later it was stubs. Only about 2 inches left above the ground. I put a "cage" around it an it is back this year but small.