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

Buy a miniature Daschund and let him out in the yard. Mine, Snoopy, managed to kill two cute baby bunnies this past week. Unfortunately or fortunately, he took them, shook them and broke their necks. It wasn't a pleasant sight for my 15 year old daughter, who was out in the yard watering my grass seed. But, it sure works. We found the first one in the yard,dead. So I assume he killed it, too. The third (and final one) ran across the street. Don't think he has returned. Now, my question is, what can I do with the rabbit hole? Can I just fill it in with dirt and plant grass seed over it? Will the mother return?

I too have a deer issue. We bought our house, which is bordered in the rear by woods, and has a deer run right through our side yard. Being our first house, we thought it was wonderful. The first fall in the house we went to a nursery and started buying plants, a woman there said she gave up 'feeding the deer a banquet'. I laughed, and thought she was just not a gardener. Boy, what I know now! I've used the Irish Spring in stockings tied to the plants..it just got mushy, it didn't work for me. I've 'burned' a few plants with ro-pel. I've tried the homemade spray repellants, none have worked for me. The ONLY thing that has worked for me consistantly is human hair. Sounds gross, but it works. Everytime my husband and I get our hair trimmed, we have the salon sweep up the trimmings and put it in a bag. I take it home and scatter it in the gardens, especially aroung the plants I know the deer and other animals eat. It has worked for me.. I know, last fall I got lazy and thought I'd be safe, I didn't put any down since July and that fall they came, they saw, they ATE. So we started collecting hair again. Once the salon gave me a bag they saved for me, but it had long hair in it, that was gross. We just get a little trim so the hair is fuzzy and short

i thought it worked on deer as well. I put it into socks and hung them about 'deer nose' high. My neighbor asked what it was I had hanging in the bushes. He said, "I don't know what it is but the deer seem to love it, they are always over there nibbling at it." I us chunks of it and assume once the chunk has gone and te white residue remains it has lost its effectiveness, I switch between Irish Spring, Millorganite and an egg, dish liquid, pepper water spray and I am not 100% effective. I think switching might help (???) The egg concoction seems to work best for me. It only failed me once when I ran out of spray and left my Ogon tree unprotected and every single leaf was eaten and everything else was fine. It was early Fall and the Ogon has come back this Spring. Jon