Any advice on repelling hungry bunnies?

July 12, 2004 5:49 PM

Any advice on repelling hungry bunnies?

Given the immense neighborhood population, I'm starting with the assumption that neither live trapping nor hunting/killing would be effective. "Squirrel Scoot" and other hot pepper/nicotine based products haven't worked well, although if a particular brand or application strategy has worked for you, I'm all ears. So to speak.

posted by gimonca to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Marigolds supposedly repel them and other pests. You could plant some around your garden's borders.
posted by Asparagirl at 6:05 PM on July 12, 2004

Alternately, there are cats.
posted by Asparagirl at 6:05 PM on July 12, 2004

A couple of things to try: I heard somewhere that animal (dog or cat) hair scattered around the beds might repel small animals like rabbits. When my girlfriend decided to plant a garden this year, we put a knee high chicken wire fence around the perimeter and that did the trick.
posted by MegoSteve at 6:16 PM on July 12, 2004

For God's sake, don't try to poison them, or this might happen, and then you'd have DeForest Kelley to deal with if he weren't dead... but how do you know he's not a CHUD?

I recommend releasing a few ED-209's in the neighborhood (as clearly Pumpkinhead or Little Bunny Jason would be overkill).

That, or try different varieties of bottled wolf/coyote whizz.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:43 PM on July 12, 2004

Rabbits much prefer close grazed grass. Let your lawn grow longer.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:43 PM on July 12, 2004

Fences and coyotes.
posted by caddis at 7:32 PM on July 12, 2004

I was going to bring up the coyotes. It's interesting, in most parts of Vancouver the problem is ravenous coyotes that eat anything that moves (squirrels, cats, small dogs). Looks like the bunnies have found a haven for themselves in coyote-free territory. Richmond has very few treed areas, so they've screwed themselves over in terms of providing areas for birds of prety such as hawks and owls.

I have two pet bunnies, and I can attest to how quickly they can get into the greenery. They keep my little lawn patch nicely mowed. Spraying coyote urine would do the job, no rabbit will go anywhere near coyotes.
posted by Salmonberry at 10:22 PM on July 12, 2004

The core of the issue here is that there are more bunnies than predators. Other than wholesale removal of the animals, the only way to drop their numbers is to increase the predator population. You can do that in a number of ways, but probably the most effective and least environmentally destructive is for you to become the predator. Skip poisons, and the like as they are indiscriminate about what they kill. Traps, snares, etc. The advantage to you as the predator is that you don't depend on the animals and therefore do not suffer when the population dips.

On the upside, think about a county bunny cook off. Don't let it go too far, though.
posted by plinth at 3:50 AM on July 13, 2004

my dogs and outdoor cat have done *nothing* to keep the bunnies from housing their babies in our yard and feeding them with our tomatoes. perhaps coyote urine works--labrador urine (and even being retrieved once or twice by said labrador) does not.

development near the house has done away with the foxes, so we have more bunnies than ever (much like plinth notes). if you can't bring yourself to step into the predator role (i can't, personally), you just have to live with the bunnies. i just try to get to the tomatoes first.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:19 AM on July 13, 2004

Predator urine is definitely the way to go to keep them out of your yard.

Try ordering the sampler pack (5 different bottles of predators urine) from Predator Pee and see what works best for you!
posted by filmgoerjuan at 8:31 AM on July 13, 2004