i love the name.. and i havent seen it very often.. so welcome aboard ..

but i wish you could figure out how to add your zone ... on your members page ...

i have a lot of old rose cones from my rose days.. i remove the top.. and leave the cone there.. all year.. until the conifer or tree outgrows it.. that was option one ...

chicken wire and a couple stake is option two ... only needs to be 12 inches .... and i wouldnt have to type this if i knew where you were ... but if you have consistent snow cover.. over one foot.. you have to go higher ...

i have found that my red rider irritates them ... or at least makes them take off at full speed.. but i am pretty sure there is a 'season' for such ... if you might have neighbors who might rat you out ...

hardware cloth is way overkill.. and 2 or 3 times the cost of chicken wire.. unless you just happen to have it around in excess ...

good luck.. i hear they make a nice stew ... i live trapped them once [bait with lettuce] .. then was at a loss as to what to do with them.. since relocating them may not be legal either.. again .. depending on location and neighbors ...

ken

Zone 4...snowcover most years, except this. I think the lack of snowcover is what has them biting all my trees. It really stinks because he/she must only come around at night, because I've never seen the rabbit during the day.

I have used chicken wire. As Ken says, inexpensive and does the job. You can bait live traps with bread dipped in apple juice. They seem to like that combo.

Keith

I hate rabbits. I read that if you spray your plants with a mixture of blended spicy peppers mixed with a little egg to make it stick and some other stuff, once they take a bite, they dont want to come back.

I have jack rabbits that only attack my Cedrus atlanticas. They jump the 3' chicken wire fence I installed. I dont see them enough to shoot them. Just foot prints in the snow sometimes.

I have only caught 1 in my live trap, but I think it was by accident. The dam thing had a heart attack before I could release it.

Very interested on trapping techniques that work. I will try the bread and apple juice. Lettuce, carrots, and apples them selves didnt work for me.

Good luck

I trapped 7 rabbits so far this winter in a large live trap. You can get them in a squirrel trap but I've had more success with the larger traps. I set it next to a large tree and surround it with fir boughs so it looks like a cave that they can go into...they feel much more comfortable. I use sunflower seeds for bait--they go nuts for them. Place a little bit at the entrance to the trap to reel 'em in.

Any ACS members? Did you see Ron Elardo's article in the last Conifer Quarterly about the rabbits destroying his plants? The photos were illustrative...

A: Here is the concoction lifted right from the Web site. Red cayenne, jalapeno or habanera fresh peppers can be used in the preparation, but be careful if you use habanera because the capsaicin concentration is high enough to cause serious damage to the preparer! Jalapenos should be hot enough to keep the bunnies away. The quickest way to come up with a concoction is to take three fresh peppers and run them through a food processor with enough water added to create a liquid. Pour the liquid through a cheesecloth mesh into a glass quart jar. Add about 2 tablespoons of olive or other vegetable oil, a squirt of Elmer's glue and a drop or two of liquid dishwashing detergent. Use one part of the concentration to 10 parts water. Shake well just before application. This should discourage the bunnies without hurting them. If not, then make the concentration stronger (30 percent) or use the cayenne peppers for extra heat. Be sure to reapply after new growth appears or after a good rain. Deer will be controlled with this as well.

I will never understand the taste buds of rabbits. They will devour certain cultivars of Tsuga can while leaving another cultivar nearby unscathed. Norway Spruce has never been hit here but Picea orientalis and omorika (maybe it's an "O" thing) are like candy. Once, on another forum, a gentleman from Wisconsin gave quite a tutorial on snares (think hasenpfeffer).

It looks like this year may be the third year running of Great Horned Owls nesting in a Larix in a nearby park. Nothing like hungry mouths to feed to help control the fur rat population.

tj

Until a few years ago my rabbit issues were moderate. Even with a full chain link fence. Until I wrapped the lower 3 ft. with a close strand wire mash did my problems go away. I spent 10 days on my hands and knees in 1 ft. snow and moderately cold temps after they nearly destroyed my conifer garden. Knawing tree bark, up liming most conifers...well you get the picture. The only time they took to my trees was when there was a heavy continuous snow pack. There food source was covered up thus the only other option to survive was tree bark and conifer greens.

If that is not an option the only two things that work are, I tried them both, a 177 cal. pellet gun. The other option that many people aren't aware of, is Sweet Gum Balls. Those spiny balls that drop from fall through winter from these nasty trees. Gather up as many as you will think you need and place them around the trees you want to protect. A 2 ft. circumference should be enough. Close crop the grass so there is no cushion for them to lay on. These gum balls have very sharp spiny ends which makes it very uncomfortable on the rabbits feet pads. They move on very quickly. Also place them under Hostas. The snails and slugs cannot navigate on these sharp spines either and you can enjoy damage free Hostas.

If none of these suggestions are not an option then good luck. Trapping has about a 10% success rate and the rabbits feed only after the sun goes down. Of course the chicken wire thing works but what a pain in the arss to rig this unsightly option into being especially if you have a lot of plants to protect.

If you look to the left of the 'Secrest W B' you can see the fine mash screen I added to the chain link fence.

Dave

{{gwi:668084}}

another theory ...

my lot is former horse pasture.. so what i call a lawn is more likely a meadow... cut to lawn height ...

instead of ALL grass .. i have a plethora of dandylion, yarrow, plantain, what i call buttercup[which probably isnt] ... and God knows what else ...

my rabbit issues involves curiosity ... they nip something.. and then taste it.. and then leave it laying there.. and hop away ... and that is why it is ONLY an issue for me.. when i have a 2nd year graft.. with barely more than one bud on it ... i only have to protect for a very short term ...

my theory ... my 'lawn' is a veritable cornucopia of rabbital delight.. a salad bar, if you will ...

their preference is to browse the buffet .. not eat resin infested conifers ...

so .. in summation .. if you could.. pull out your monocultured lawn.. and resow with meadow weeds ... and the rabbits will stay out of your yucky conifers ...

yeah.. like thats going to happen.. lol

ken

Dietzjm-

Thanks so much. That is on my to buy list. I have a squirrel trap, but man they seem to avoid that like the plague. I'll get one and report back any results.

My yard has a lot of clover (its not treated or anything) so they seem to hang out around here. I do wonder if they'll take a tasting to my tulips again...

Just to add to the discussion, this is how I protect all my conifers in the winter. Around late Oct. I put a small post in the ground and then wrap with chicken wire. It will stay on for a couple more weeks and come off ealry April when the grass greens up. After that it seems the threat is gone. What the 410 doesn't get rid of I try and trap with a squirrell cage baited with corn. The trap only works for me in winter with lots of snow cover when there's not much else to eat

{{gwi:651113}}

My Norway spruce (zone 5a) has also been eaten this year. Bunny has been seen chomping on my euonymus as well, which is beside the spruce. There used to be a fox in our neighbourhood, but I haven't seen him lately. I don't mind the euonymus, but the spruce is a no-no.

Rabbit populations run in cycles. It rises for several years, then many times, a disease called Tularemia enters the picture and drastically reduces the hare population over the next few years. That's why you won't have trouble with rabbits for many years and then all of a sudden, they're eating everything they can find. Severity of the winters and numbers of predatory animals in the area can also play a part in this scenario.

My neighbor had what we believe to be a Pinus jeffreyi. get debarked last summer after several years of no rabbit problems.

Your fox may have been run over by an automobile of met his demise another way.

Ooooh! What I'd give to have one of those around my place. Nice picture! It can be hard to get pictures of those guys as they are mainly nocturnal and otherwise lead a secretive life.

Around here I feel glad when I look out the window and see a ferule cat on the prowl. I didn't how many rabbits I had until is snowed and now can see all the tracks crisscrossing my yard.

Glad I rabbit proofed all my trees last fall. :-)

VERY nice shot tj

we had fox for 6 yrs.,,,they chased off ALL varmints

when I built shed , I dug a great den for them,,,she moved right in

alas ,, coyotes chased them off

ron

Fox are a joy to have around. I had an interesting experience this past late fall while monitoring a small fire in the woods at dusk. I was sitting about 15’ from the fire with my back against a large oak and could make out something approaching, but I wasn’t sure what. I kept still and it continued to approach when I realized it was a fox. It got to within about 8’ of me before I decided it was close enough. It was quite a thrill.

After not seeing more than a couple of rabbits all winter. I went out after a recent snow storm. Freshly made tracks just over the last few days. So rabbits can be very active even though you don't see them. And they can move 'on top' of the snow crust, avoiding many of their larger predators that can't go as fast while breaking through the snow layers in pursuit. Many of them won't even try this time of year.

I hope we don't get additional snow because my rabbit inhibiters around the trees are close to being compromised. Pine and spruce hardly ever get bothered around here but you never know for sure.

The red pine above I may remove this year so not worried about it. The staked spruce has some chicken wire up to the lower branches so fingers crossed.

try this

ron

haha!

Where I live in town, seeing wild fox would be an anomaly. Besides with deep snow conditions, even fox can't chase rabbits efficiently and will wait for conditions to improve. In the wild, fox and coyote will find thickly wooded areas, where the snow cover isn't as deep, living on mice and other rodents/varmints coming out of hibernation. Can be a tough time of year for fox up in this country.

Oh, fox love cats, mostly younger ones. Not to play with either.

Nice pictures though.

Thanks! :-)

FWIW:

At my old place in the country we had more gray fox than reds. Only type of fox that can climb a tree that I know of. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwCFnQJkfxU

Maybe dont kill a native animal to save your exotic plantings. plesse support the local biodiveristy instead of working against it.

Sandra,

If you're worried about rabbits, don't be. An adult female can have 5 to 7 litters per season and up to 12 bunnies per litter. Without some way to balance the extraordinarily high propagation rate, the country would be overrun with rabbits and diseases like Tularemia would become their end fate.

Mother nature has put rabbits are at the bottom of the food chain to feed bobcats, foxes, coyotes, lynx, eagles and hawks and other meat-eating animals, especially for survival over winter.

Don't worry, Mother nature has 'Got this'. ;-)

I've noticed damage to some of my shrubs this year. Calyanthus and Clethra branches are chewed. I'm going to have to prune them back lower. Both are native plants so I assume that's the reason they were the only shrubs bothered. I'm assuming it was rabbits. We see them all year. I was thinking maybe they didn't find a lot to eat this winter.

Here we don't have bobcat, foxes, eagles, lynx. We do have hawks and coyotes, although the coyotes are rarely seen. I've only seen one once in the middle of the night. We've had a population explosion in recent years. And it's not just about protecting "exotic" plants, you can barely grow vegetables without rabbits sabotaging your efforts. Not easy to keep them out of your garden beds.

I have no exotic plants at all. But I agree, rabbits, like other native animals, they know what the best eating is and will pick on the vegetable gardens, flowers and shrubs during summer.

And depending on the current population and severeness of winter, rabbits can destroy the entire yard by girdling the bark on woody plants, that are up to 2"+ in diameter. A special favorite for them is fruit trees.

' Here we don't have bobcat, foxes, eagles, lynx.'

Prairiemoon, I'm a little surprised you would make that comment.

Bobcats in MA:

Foxes in MA:

Eagles in MA:

Bill, sure they are in my state, but I've lived in this neighborhood for 35+ years - there are none of those animals in my neighborhood keeping the population of rabbits under control. Just coyotes and hawks.

My point was, that if you are trying to garden, native vs exotic is not the issue, now adays a lot of people are realizing they are better off trying to grow some of their own food. And in areas where there are not enough predators to keep the rabbits under control, like mine, you are on your own, trying to protect your garden from rabbits.

Bill m-n - when weve completely upended mother nature by planting copious amounts of wxotci plantings and taken away habitat for native wildlife and plants then you can no longer play the mother nature card.

i strongly encourage everyone to take a stewardship approach to gardening. if you like norway spruce so much - why not just move to Norway? if you want to be in north america then please try to support North American ecosystems. And please stop killing just because someone ate your shrub. they’re hunghungry because you took their land and food.

Yeah, I don't see any wild animals in my yard either. And I'm on the edge of a small-town surrounded by farm fields and wild woods.

And even though most carnivorous wild animals are strictly nocturnal and very stealthy, they really don't do enough to keep down the numbers of mice and rabbits overall.

I used to live trap the yard rabbits and move them away from town but that got to be almost a full-time job and dealing with the occasional skunk in the trap wasn't my idea of a fun day. :^0

Anytime I plant anything of a smaller nature, that rabbits might eat, I surround them with chicken wire and a stake, at least for a while until they have the chance to get established with some size to them. I don't vegetable garden anymore and most of my trees aren't as susceptible to rabbits anymore.

Some ilex v. seedlings (native plant) planted last spring. Wire on top to deter deer.

:^)

Sandra, I’m sure you don’t realize it, but your comments border on the offensive. Very aggressive position to take to lay it all at the feet of the individual gardener.

“If you like Norway Spruce so Much - why not just move to Norway?”

That’s a very confrontational and angry kind of statement to make and actually aim it at an individual here.

“They are hungry because you took their land and food.”

Seriously? Do you realize how many people live in the world now? Or how complicated the issues are? I haven’t read the whole thread, so I don’t know who you were addressing, but you’ve stepped over a line. Not just in your speech here, but in your thinking.

And to make these kinds of statements and then say, "I strongly encourage....." After you've just beat someone over the head with your words and attitude, this wording is a fail.

Bill m-n - when weve completely upended mother nature by planting copious amounts of wxotci plantings and taken away habitat for native wildlife and plants then you can no longer play the mother nature card.

i strongly encourage everyone to take a stewardship approach to gardening. if you like norway spruce so much - why not just move to Norway?

if you want to be in north america then please try to support North American ecosystems. And please stop killing just because someone ate your shrub. they’re hunghungry because you took their land and food.

Sandra,

You've taken a 'Shoot first and ask questions later' approach by coming onto a public forum and accusing people that you don't even know.

The people here for the most part are the most conscientious people I know where nature and conservation is concerned. Why do you just lump everyone into the same bag and figure your job is done? There are people here that have dedicated their lives, working the forefront in the battle for conservation.

And where did I say anything about killing?

Killing is nature's way. It's how things survive. The weak and sick get thinned out leaving room in the gene pool for only the best and healthiest.

It you want things to change, then get together with people that are doing the same and help them to achieve the same common ends. That's what we do.

Sandra, There are over 8 Billion people on the planet. They are part of the ecosystem too. Where do you think they are going to live to preserve habitat for the animal population? Smarter people then any of us have tried to solve all the problems, but when you look around, it only gets worse every year.

And your attitude only makes it worse. I don't understand what you thought you were going to accomplish by making these posts. All you have succeeded in doing was to make people who champion conservation, natives, animal lovers look bad. You certainly don't draw anyone to you, or make them open to whatever you have to say.

I know half a dozen people on these boards that work hard to preserve and create wildlife habitat, many out of their own pocket. I think Sandra is thinking of big industry. She's getting that mixed up with us everyday joes that garden and professional horticultural people.

And to anyone that thinks living in nature, is a perfect world and there is no danger or terror present, without humans around.

Tell that to the deer fawns that get fed to Bald Eagle chicks, every year by their parents.

Just the thought of those large talons getting sunk into your spine, paralyzing you and being carried off, alive to the nest is horrifying. Natures way.

BTW: bald eagles are good to have around if you have too many deer in your garden.

Hobby gardeners, hobby gardening, professional horticulturalists, professional horticulture, don't deserve any summary judgements, especially not the one that was posted out of the blue.

Like anything else, it all depends on the individual facts in any given case.

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And if you are asking me, here comes my own subjective opinion: my gardening hobby is more caring about nature than say, somebody's hunting hobby.

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And back to objectivity, yes, nature can be very, very cruel. I used to have a different hobby, putting up a nestbox for chickadees (one can control which bird species will nest by sizing the entrance hole and other ways) The nestbox was mounted on a corner of a window, and has a cutout so that I can see the inside of the nextbox from inside my (human) house. One day, a chickadee that is more dominant than the nesting pair, discovered the nest and pecked out the eyes of the chicks, leaving them alive and otherwise unhurt but without any chance of survival. That's the reason I gave up on the hobby in utter horror, I still feel pretty bad thinking about it after so many years.

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Leave nature be and take care of it the best you can!