Hello snaylor, " The rabbits come up on the railing of my deck to eat from the rail planters and the other plants (on plant stands!) on my deck. Stargazer lilies chewed to the ground before they are an inch high. Nothing "cute" about bunnies, they are destructive, filthy animals. " Since you have a neighbor, I assume you live in town and an air rifle is not a good idea for controlling the rabbits. A slingshot would probably be legal, but would take some practice. Assuming your deck is in your backyard, fencing the rabbits out of your backyard is probably the best idea. A chicken-wire fence about 3 or 4 feet high might work, provided that your codes permit that. If you have an existing fence, the chicken-wire would just serve to make it rabbit proof. Nothing will keep squirrels out, but as you already know, they can be trapped. Fortunately for me, rabbits don't damage my zinnias. We have several native plants in our rural area that they prefer. ZM

Hello, everyone! I am a new member, and glad to be here. This is a long post, but it's worth reading, because it is a simple, inexpensive and permanent solution to the problem of rabbits eating your flowers and vegetables. I do cannot understand why so many people pass up this infallible solution for keeping rabbits and other small critters (and maybe deer, as well) from eating their flowers and vegetables. IT WORKS, PERIOD. Put in a blender the following, none of which need to be peeled or otherwise fooled with, except for the onion, which should be cut in quarters, to facilitate blending: 2 dozen habanero peppers 1 whole head garlic 1 medium red onion 1 tablespoon peppermint oil Add enough water so that it comes to about 4 inches above ingredients.(This really means to add enough water that ingredients will get as liquefied as possible.) Blend on highest speed until it appears to you that all ingredients are thoroughly liquefied. Add enough additional water to come up to the 1 quart mark on blender. Blend again at high speed for 30 seconds or so. Strain the mixture through a nylon stocking, or better yet, a nut milk bag, if you have one. It might even be worth your while to buy a nut bag expressly for the purpose of making this recipe. (Just do a search under "Not bag" or "nut milk bag.) But a nylon stocking will work. Strain mixture over a bowl through stocking (or nut bag) till no more liquid runs through. Then squeeze as much more liquid as possible out of what is still in the stocking. WASH YOUR HANDS AND UNDER YOUR NAILS VERY WELL WITH LOTS OF SOAP AND WARM WATER AFTER HANDLING THE MIXTURE. Using a funnel, pour the strained liquid into a 1 quart spray/stream bottle. Now you are ready to spray or squirt the mixture on your plants. Rabbits will NOT eat plants on which you spray this stuff. You don't need to over spray, but don't be stingy, either. Make sure whatever you spray gets a decent dousing. It won't take long before the critters keep away just because of the smell HOWEVER, you MUST be vigilant about using this stuff. After it rains, especially after a hard rain, spray your plants again. Whether it rains or not, spray every 3 weeks. If the smell wears off sufficiently, the rabbits will be back. Also, there will be young, "unschooled" rabbits coming along throughout the season, That's it. No rabbit fences, no dogs, cats, traps, etc. The main reason this mixture works is because rabbits will not take more than a nibble of a leaf with this stuff on it before they try something else. By the way, rabbits have a "favorites" list." So if you spray this mixture on whatever is their favorite item in your garden, they will begin eating whatever is second, then third, fourth, etc. on their list. So that means you need to spray most things in your garden, except for plants you know they won't eat, like tomatoes, for instance. I read the post about rabbits eating someone's tomatoes, and I would not believe it unless I actually saw it. The reason is that tomatoes, potatoes and other nightshade family plants have a horrible tasting poison in their leaves and stems. Rabbits simply cannot to tolerate it. Try a little nibble on a leaf yourself, and you'll see... Well, that's it: Capsaicin is the end of the line for rabbit problems, as well as other small critter problems. I think this stuff also works for deer, but am not sure. It may be that a mixture for deer needs to also have "putrefied egg solids" in it. THAT is something I would buy, not make!

Well, so far a havahart raccoon trap has worked well for me. This is the first year I have had any significant rabbit damage and I only had to catch 2 to end the damage (thus far). Your mileage may vary. Of course, once trapped you have to either kill them or relocate them 5 miles or so away to prevent them from returning.

1- get a dog ! 2- get a gun. 3- Fence your garden 4- Cover plants with nylon tulle 5- use a live cage. 6_when you see them, chase them, throw thing at them, yell and swear at them ..LOL( ..You son of so and so...get the ..f.. out of here!..haha) I personally like the last one a lot. I get my frustrations out that way. This post was edited by seysonn on Thu, Jun 6, 13 at 1:47