HELP! RABBITS are eating my plants!!!

[cheerbop]

I woke up the past 2 days to see that one of my largest Hostas has most of its leaves missing. I am positive it is rabbits eating my plants. How can I keep them away from certain areas?

Any tips would be appreciated!

 

[cheerbop]

Bumping to see if anyone can help.....

 

[Daxx]

Fencing around the plants would work. If you don't want to do that, one of our neighbors suggested cotton balls soaked w/peppermint oil. I guess they don't like the smell of the stuff?

 

[paigevz]

My parents have a motion activated sprinkler. It's supposed to come on when a varmint comes around and scare them off. I didn't actually ask them if they had much success with it...........they had it by their apple trees and my dad had fun asking each one of us in turn to come see his apple crop and then laughing when we got soaked.

 

[TheDisneyTraveler06]

This happened to us, also. We had to get fencing around our plants. They were finally blooming, and then one day we went outside and saw that they were all eaten up. Rediculous, huh?

 

[monkeyboy]

RABBITS are eating my plants!!!

Dingos ate my baby?

 

[Linnie The Pooh]

I got slug killer for mine. I have tons of hostas and every year they got eaten so badly-they looked horrible. I thought maybe the slugs were getting them since that is one of their favorite foods, I'm told. I got slug killer this year and put that around the base of the plant and the hostas are beautiful and full. I don't know if it was slugs or hostas, but it worked.

 

[NCRedding]

My dad had rabbits eating the green beans from his garden. The local seed/plant store recommended something to sprinkle around the plants that contains rotten egg material, but doesn't smell. The rabbits hate it, and haven't touched a plant since.

 

[Nancy]

At my garden center I got some all natural spray that keeps rabbits away. It works, but is rather expensive and it doesn't harm plants, kids or animals. Srry I can't remember the name.

 

[Sparx]

I seriously dislike rabbits(donnie darko gave me lasting emotional damage) but I don't really have that problem. But I spent a week on the University Of Tennessee-Knoxville campus a few weeks ago, studdying the gardens and they had this problem. They keep cats on site to scare off rabbits. so maybe you could get a cat?

 

[Dizzy for Dsny]

I've had much success with Shake Away for rabbits and also Liquid Fence, but if your like me and have extensive gardens I have sprayed and had my husband make chicken wire small cages to put around. That seems to keep them away enough to get the plant growing again, especially after they have eaten down to nothing.

I've tried the cayenne pepper thing, but never seemed to work for me!

This year they demolished two flats of impatiens even before I ever got planted. They ate everything down to the dirt.

Good luck!

 

[cheerbop]

Thanks for the tips...I am just going nuts. Last year they ate all my impatiens right after I planted! UGH!

I will try a few things and see. The one hosta they ate the most of was the biggest one and now it only has 4 leaves left....

 

[Kaybee]

Try the liquid fence. It is a spray that repels rabbits and deer. And I have to add humans too as the smell is something horrible!! It does work...the deer seem to love my hostas and some of my other plants. Since I have used the spray they have left my garden alone!

 

[golfgal]

My MIL uses something called Deer Scram or something like that. You sprinkle it around the edge of your garden and it keeps the rabbits and deer away. They have had good luck with it this year. You have to buy it online I guess.

 

[4chitlins]

Or you could make a spray out of garlic and water or crushed red pepper and water and spray the plants. I use that for some of my vegetable plants to keep slugs and snails off of the leaves

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Rabbits are a real pain. I used to think that they were so cute, hopping along...that is until they chewed down my blueberry bushes a couple of times. And we have a fence around our yard and a dog who will kill the rabbits if she catches them. After the first time we put a little garden fence around the blueberry plants and after the second time we put deer netting around the whole thing, but the deer neeting gets caught in the trimmer. Now we have special rabbit proof fence, which is smaller wire at the bottom and more spread out wire at the top of the fence. It's probably 2 feet tall and allows us access to weed it and doesn't get caught in the trimmer. It's not too practical for something like hostas that you want to be able to see, however, but works well for a garden, just in case someone is having problems with that.

Maybe if you try one of the topical things and keep reapplying if it rains, they'll just go somewhere else after awhile and you won't have to keep applying the stuff. What a bother!

 

[daisyduck123]

I haven't read all the replies, but here's what I've just heard recently about this topic:

A few days ago at the pool, one mom was telling us how she & her DH were having the same problem & someone told her to go buy rubber snakes & put them in her gardern...that the rabbits are afraid of them. I have no idea how it worked out. The last I heard, her DH was off to KB Toys to purchase some toy rubber snakes!

 

[Buckalew11]

We've always put cut hair around anything that the rabbits are bothering. Works for us. I think they can smell "humans" and it scares them(??) I have had people come over and get bags of cut hair from me for their gardens.

 

[jennz]

We have the same problem with the rabbits!! I've declared war with them and so far so good kind of. They ate a hibiscus down to the stems, ate all our cantaloupe, most of the broccoli and started on the moss roses...they have left the hosta alone (side note: in St. Louis we had a bad problem w/slugs on our hosta, haven't had that here in Indy but it's much much less humid here) We used the spray w/the cayenne pepper in it (bought it at Wal-Mart for around $6) and you have to spray it until the leaves are wet and reapply every few days - I did it every day then I ran out. They came back. I just tried some of the deer repellent spray (Home Depot, $18) last night. It said you don't have to reapply but it also says don't use 2 weeks before you plan to harvest. Our dog's fur has no effect on the rabbits. Actually they might be using it to line their nests...

Good luck!!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Our dog's fur has no effect on the rabbits. Actually they might be using it to line their nests...

Good luck!!

If our dog who eats rabbits doesn't stop the rabbits from coming into the yard I'm not surprised that your not having luck with dog's fur. Rabbit's are determined, aren't they?