Rabbits and deer will eat almost anything if they are desperate. Onions and garlic don't deter our wildlife, nor do most of the supposedly rabbit and deer proof plants. We've had rabbits graze garlic chives down to the roots. We live on a acre of cactus, yucca, thistles and all kinds of thorny brambles. We also have hawks, owls and bobcats strolling through regularly. We have deer sleeping in front of the house, rabbits hopping from one plant to another, though all the spiky, thorny brush. So don't believe the stories that predators or spiky leaves or smelly plants will protect your garden from wildlife. Commercial repellants are all based on bloodmeal or sulphurous eggs, and they are reputed to work, at least for a time. I make my own repellant - recipe is given earlier in this thread. I find this works but must be reapplied about once a month. I also use chicken wire cages around small plants. All of this is necessary when the animals have to eat or starve to death. Cheryl

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!

I live in a remote area of the desert and we used to have several coyote packs out here. Sadly, idiots have shot most of the coyotes just because they were coyotes. Now, we have an out of control rabbit population. It only took two years without coyotes. The cottontails aren't have the problem that the Jack Rabbit (hares) are. I leave water out in several spots as I heard that helps. It doesn't. I planted a thorny hybrid type of cactus that I was told they would hate. They ate it in half. I planted a soap aloe, that I was told they would hate due to the taste. They ate every single spear in half. I planted roses and they stripped them immediately. We planted lavender and they ate every single plant TO THE GROUND. Now, we have ugly chicken wire cages around every rose, all our young pine trees (they ate those too), and all our expensive rabbit-resistant cacti. Someone recommended we use human urine around the plants. We tried it around one plant and it appears to have worked, but WE smell it too. No thanks. I am ready to start culling out the over-populated hares here. Idiots should have never killed off all our coyotes. The only plants they do NOT eat here so far: California poppies California Bluebells Desert Marigold Needleleaf Ragwort Fruitless Olive tree (or their shoots, which I wish they WOULD eat) Pomegranate tree (or their shoots, which I wish they WOULD eat) Chia The plants they DO eat so far: Lavender Cornflower/Bachelor Buttons Daisies Desert Asters Rose bushes Afghan Pine Trees COUNTLESS wildflowers that were in a wildflower mix that got munched as they sprouted Soap Agave Hybrid Purple Prickly Pear (with big white thorns!!!)

Glad the momma turned up. Sitting still for a very long time is typical of rabbits. We used to camp at Big Bend National Park and in the evening the cottontails would line up across the road and stare at us. It was a little eery. We lived in an Ohio suburb and the bunnies did the same thing. The exception was our neighbor's pet rabbit who used to escape and come over to eat the clover in our lawn. If you want to help keep them safe, build a little brush pile in the back yard, thorny shrub cuttings are great, remember Br'er Rabbit?