Protecting the garden from Rabbits

Ok, I know there are probably lots of threads with tips about protecting the garden from rabbits but I did some searching and didn't find too much.

Anyway, in certain garden beds the local rabbits seem to come in and do lots of damage to certain crops.  I don't know that I'll get much broccoli or kohlrabi from that bed as the bunnies are doing them in.  Why couldn't they like turnips better?

So, does anyone know of plants that will tend to turn the bunnies aside?  I hate spending money on something to scatter around the garden when I'll only have to do it again after the next rain!  I've used onions and garlic in the past to get squirrels to quit digging up potted plants but it doesn't seem to stop the bunnies from eating the broccoli leaves and pulling up entire kohlrabi plants.

I don't believe a 'plant' will detur a 'rabbit', and there are many other 'solutions' out there I don't believe will work either.  So in the interest of cutting to the chase I will post the usual suggestions and add my comments.

#1 Build a two foot high fence around your vegetable garden to keep the rabbits out. Poultry wire works best. Bury your fence about eight to ten inches below the ground to keep rabbits from borrowing beneath it. Make sure you keep any gates closed since rabbits will find this a great way into your vegetable garden.

2' high probably won't be high enough for wild rabbits, my well fed domestic rabbits can go over a 2' fence when motivated. 
Poultry wire rusts out in a couple of seasons with regular exposure to moisture (not a surprise) but what might surprise you are the little sharp pieces of metal it leaves behind (not a good addition to soil you are working in).  If you are going to fence go 3' above ground and 1' below with welded wire like that used for rabbit hutches.  This is much more expensive than poultry wire and may not be an option for your budget.  Also, it won't stop rabbits from digging under so you will want to watch your fence line - no hedges or such to hide what the little buggars might be up to.

# Step 2  Raise your beds about eighteen inches off the ground.

Again, not high enough - though this would work for keeping ducks out

# Step 3  Buy some garden netting or anti-animal netting and place it over your vegetables. You should be able to find netting at a local garden supply store.

Are they kidding?  All small mammals will chew through netting, the worst being rabbits and opossums.  Netting is good for larger animals such as cats, dogs, deer.... etc.  (non-chewers)

# Step 4  Install motion detector sprinklers. These will turn on whenever a rabbit approaches your garden, sprinkling them with water and scaring them away.

Okay I don't see this working.  Blasting low near garden plants the strategy?  Your plants will be a casualty of this war!  Rabbits are good at finding a way around obstacles.  I can foresee a lot of loopholes in this plan for them to exploit.

# Step 5  Sow clover around your vegetable garden. Rabbits will eat clover over vegetables and may fill up on the clover rather than your garden.

I like this idea coupled along with having a predator deterrent such as a dog that sleeps out near your garden.  When the rabbits gain access around the dog they will then have 'other' food to keep 'em busy.  Even so, this is still not a perfect solution as rabbits are known to skip this food and go for that food.

# Step 6  Plant a double-row of onions around your garden. Rabbits don't like onions and will find another area to forage.

Hum....really (I have my doubts).  Now if you combined this with Step #5 and plant the clover outside the onion fence and have a back up for when the onions are small and/or harvested such as a dog you may have a perfect solution  

A Combination of deterrents is The Solution, it's all about making your garden veggies just not worth it in so many ways.  Remember rabbit populations and available forage will very from year to year, and you will find this greatly affects how well your defenses work for any given year.  So setting up your defenses and then watching for where and when you may need to deef 'em up must be your strategy.  As long as some other food is easier and safer they will leave your garden alone.


I have not found any of the following to work, but since we are covering the 'list' I thought I should post them too....

Chemical Solutions to Keep the Rabbits Away: 

# Step 1  Dilute hot pepper sauce into water and sprinkle onto your plants. You will have to reapply after heavy watering or rain.

# Step 2  Sprinkle fox or coyote urine around your garden. Large animal urines are available at many gardening or farm supply stores.

# Step 3  Get some human hair from your barber or hair dresser and sprinkle it around your garden. In addition, human hair is a great fertilizer for your vegetables.

I hope this helps you ~

Currently don't think a dog is a viable option for us.  -I'm not sure how hard it would be to train a dog to protect chickens yet attack rodents.-

I don't really want to mess with fencing or raised garden beds as my gardens tend to move about the yard and as already pointed out, wire rusts away especially in a humid sub tropical climate.

I've noticed the rabbit damage seems to be mostly in one corner of the yard.

I understand the lack of love for the dog solution, animals are 'work' no two ways around it.
However, training to be nice to farm chickens, cats, etc. but violent to intruding animals is easy.  Dogs are gifted in this area of making distinctions as you train them in this regard.

The welded wire is galvanized and so it would last a very long time - however your back to the work to implement issue, as well as the money issue.

I am sorry, in all my years I have never heard of an easy (little to no work) and cheap (little to no cost) solution for pest problems.  Maybe someone else has, and will post ...

One other consideration, I've had no experience with, is electric wire fencing.  Set this about 6" off the ground and then again at about a 1.5' (you will have to get exact height from someone with experience) and watch your fence line for diggers.  Fill in holes and try planting some clover

This maybe a combination of work and cost you feel more comfortable with.

Good luck

electric might work. but from experience I would expect it to be a constant maintenance issue when put so close to the ground. This is my first year with bunny problems. I have quite a few wire tomato cages that are homemade with welded 1x2" openings. I have placed these around vulnerable plants this fall and it seems to be adequate. no diggers yet but they have plenty of other options to eat and I suspect that simply making it difficult was enough to send them elsewhere.....like to the kohlrabi that wasn't protected. 

If I can't get my chicken moat up around the garden by spring I plant to make long domed wire row covers to protect things such as green beans which were totally devastated this summer. i am envisioning something like a long tiny hoop house. I'm hoping it might also be able to double as a a frame for holding some greenhouse sheeting in place to get an early start on some things and also to be a frame for shade cloth for some heat sensitive fall plantings.

I'll have to watch and see if the stuff in the tunnel by the driveway stays intact here over winter any better than the stuff outside (though it won't be a very balanced observation since the cold weather crops would rather be outside the tunnel.)

For a long time I had thought most of the damage in that corner of the yard was from squirrels but now I think the rabbits might have been eating the sweet potato vines too as I doubt the squirrels are eating broccoli and kohlrabi leaves.

A chicken moat around the gardens would be fun, however, I don't dare run chickens in that corner of my yard as I fear that would cause the tattle tale squad to call code enforcement and make me get rid of all the chickens so I better keep them sort of out of site from the park.

Hum, maybe I just need to reserve that section of garden for non bunny favorite foods but that does crop rotation a challenge.

Any crops that people haven't seen a rabbit touch?  So far I think turnips are pretty safe from them or maybe I just have too many turnips. 

Just so I'm understanding you, you feel the rabbits will limit themselves to that one area of your garden even if you plant foods they don't like there and move the foods they do like to another area? 

I'm with Leah, no fence, then wire-cover everything they eat

As for plants wild rabbits don't like to eat.... I've only heard of onions and garlic. 

I would think that the thing to do is to trap them and eat them.

I don't know that they will limit themselves, however, I am willing to try growing the things rabbits dislike in the sections of garden where the rabbits feel safe going and if I am lucky enough that they don't stray beyond into other sections of the yard then I can avoid more drastic measures.  See, some large sections of "my" garden are actually kinda sorta gorilla plantings that are technically on the right of way along the dirt road so I avoid installing anything that might look like permanent fencing.  (There are some sections of post and rail fencing out there that pre-date my purchase of the property so I've planted between that and my property line.  Figure no issues unless the county decides to pave the road or something which would be highly unlikely.)

Anyway, last winter the broccoli and other related plants did fine in the back yard where I guess the bunnies don't feel that safe navigating all the way back there.  So unless there was a population explosion and sudden bunnie famine, there may still be other sections of my yard where I can get away with planting bunnie favorites again without spending lots of money/time digging fending in when I will only have to move it or have it rust away in a season.  (The chicken wire around the coop near the ground rusted away in less than a year and a half.)

try a hedge or the herb rue- a bit stinky but dont think bunnies will want to pass through it
the site at coopext.colostate.edu has a list of rabbit, squirrel,deer deterant plants, may be worth a look

Sounds like there are reasons then that the rabbits are not eating around your entire yard.

I agree, start small and only increase your efforts as absolutely necessary.

I have heard of sprinkling human hair used to repel them.  This would be easy to try and might save you from planting until you've found just what you want to use.

If you can't beat them, join them.

You say the bunnies are eating the kohlrabi and broccoli.  You've already found your decoy plants.  Seems to me if you give them what they want, they will hang out where the food is.  Put in MORE kohlrabi and broccoli in the same area.  Keeping them out of the rest of the garden is the objective.  Go with what works.
If you can then segregate the bunny farm from the rest of the garden with wire fence or buried lumber, you'll have achieved your objective.

Think of the rabbits as a resource.  Consider trapping the bunnies as Paul Wheaton says.  If eating them is out of the question, keep them as pets.  They make a fine fertilizer.  Keep trapping them, give them away with an ad on Craigslist or Freecycle.  You might even find people willing to pay 5 bucks for a bunny.  Keep in contact with these people, pick up their bunny poop now and then.  They do the feeding, you get the love.  You might even be able to sell them some broccoli and kohlrabi for their new pet.

The beasts have burrows somewhere close.  With a regular food supply, they will be breeding.  These things breed...well..like rabbits .  Their population will grow to exceed the available food supply in the area unless their population is controlled.  Predation, trapping, starvation and poison are options to explore.  Decon Mouse Pruf is effective on rodents.  The toxins build up in their system until lethal levels are reached.  Being larger than mice, it may take several packages.  You would also need to keep the stuff dry while it is available.  If you go with this method, you'll want to seal up any entrances under the house and sheds.  When the bunnies decompose, they will put out an awful odor.

Should the population of the bunnies explode, your best option maybe to stop gardening for a while.  Eliminate their food source, they will die off by starvation or move on to greener pastures.

I have rabbits and my reason was to provide rabbit manure for my garden.  Unfortunately a relatively close neighbor who thought that he would be able to raise and harvest the rabbits for food found that he could not bring himself to harvest the cute little guys. Since spillage from my rabbits feeders falls out on the ground they were essentially being fed or attracted by me at that point.
Rather than find someone to take his animals he released them in the area. So I have been overrun with the the litters that followed. Keeping them out of the garden has been an extreme challenge. Over the summer I was able to live trap over 35 animals and gave them to others who could or would take care of them or harvest them. As cruel as it sounds I finally began snaring them and harvested the animals myself.
Raised beds helped but even my raised beds I find that I have to provide some type of coverage to protect the plants from the deer and elk that enter my property. Elk are not deterred by fences no matter how stout. I have to protect most of my plants with some type of fencing. Choke cherries and apple trees once they have a substantial trunk are unfenced yet I still have deer problems. Bird netting over those trees do help but I am always afraid that at sometime one will get it entwined in their antlers.

Well I must say that my rabbit problem is pretty darn minimal at this point in time.  Just enough that I noticed several chewed up plants in one section of the yard.  I suspect the home of these critters is out by the corner of the roads under a big Australian pine that is a shrubby area that is technically not my property.

I don't think that snaring them is so terribly cruel if you are going to use them for something.  Better than poison in my book.

Not sure if anyone is still watching this thread, but it's definitely something that I am thinking about. I really started gardening this year in the suburbs, and rabbits were a major issue. My joke was to tell people that I wasn't gardening, I was just making a list of plants that rabbits did and did not like. I also have squirrels and probably racoons (and an occasional neighborhood dog...) so im looking for "broad spectrum" nibbling critter solutions.

I did find that they tend to leave solanaceae (nightshade) plants alone. My tomaoes and potatoes were mostly undisturbed. I had an eggplant that was knocked over at a very young stage and did not recover, and I did not plant any peppers. Perhaps the alkaloids in these plants make them un-tasty to critters?

They also did not bother my butternut squash, or the zucchini (once it was established.) I believe that they did not like the tiny, sharp, "guard hairs" on these types of plants. Too prickly for their delicate noses.

They left my hop plants alone, and did not touch the sage or basil. Again, too much flavor for their delicate palates.

I had several collards, and those did well, but I think they grew tall enough to be resistant to some mild chewing, as long as the central "new leaf" section remained undisturbed.

Lettuce: I thought I could plant so much it would overwhelm them or satiate them, or give them diabetes. No. They ate it all. Tiny leaves would poke out only to disappear when you turn your back.
Cucumbers: gone
Carrots: What's up, doc? I'll tell you what's up, the rabbits ate all my carrots, that's what's up.
Peas: worse than lettuce, if that's possible.
Asparagus: I think the squirrels like to just dig things up

I'm going to try again this year, with a combination of raised beds, cages, fence, location, guard plants, etc. We'll see what works.

I don't know about the human hair thing, I was just reading a rabbit breeding page that says you can use ANY hair for them to make a nest in if they don't pull enough of their own, and they don't care what species it is so dog/ cat/ human is fine. Not experienced enough to know how true it is, but thought I'd pass it on.

TCLynx Hatfield wrote:Ok, I know there are probably lots of threads with tips about protecting the garden from rabbits but I did some searching and didn't find too much.

Anyway, in certain garden beds the local rabbits seem to come in and do lots of damage to certain crops.  I don't know that I'll get much broccoli or kohlrabi from that bed as the bunnies are doing them in.  Why couldn't they like turnips better?

So, does anyone know of plants that will tend to turn the bunnies aside?  I hate spending money on something to scatter around the garden when I'll only have to do it again after the next rain!  I've used onions and garlic in the past to get squirrels to quit digging up potted plants but it doesn't seem to stop the bunnies from eating the broccoli leaves and pulling up entire kohlrabi plants.

I have cattle guard panels (for hogs) 2 panels high, hanging from hooks on posts 10 foot posts, buried 4 ft in the ground. (6 ft sticking out) It is handy as deer will not even attempt it, but if I need to clean right under the fence, I just unhook my panels and hoe or till right under, then rehang. They are reinforced at the bottom with hardware cloth. It was expensive to tie a 2 ft high galvanized hardware cloth barrier, but so far, so good. It mostly rests on the ground. I have a neighbor dog that passes through our property once in a while. Another thing they have not touched is my rhubarb, so I planted a row of it outside.
It seems to me that natural predators such as hawks ravens and eagles are doing a pretty good job, also, my garden is surrounded by a fair amount of land without shrubbery or trees, just clover for forage, for my honey bees and others. Maybe they don't dare cross the emptiness, or they just don't want to bother if they have clover. I know they go in the clover, all around the garden and in the orchards. When it gets cold, and very early in the spring, rabbits are good to eat (less parasites ticks and fleas). I won't try them during the summer/ fall, though. I raise chickens, but not every year. (can't winter them easily: Too far to walk in snow with water buckets!) but when I do, every rabbit we shoot in the summer is then dispatched to the chickens. They make quick work of it if you remove the skin. I could use that skin for "hand warmers" (an old fashioned cylinder with the skin on the inside and elastic at both ends), but so far, I have not bothered.

I know several gardens/farmers who have deterred rabbits as well as all other animals including humans from their gardens using electric wires . If you are off grid a solar charger will work . one farmer doing a CSA and marketl garden drove 2" by 2"  by 2 ft stakes in the ground on the sides of the garden bordering the woods The stakes had holes drilled 6 " and 12" off the ground Electric wire was run through it It was completely effective for rabbits and could be stepped over or turned off and a machine driven over it easily ./ The other gardener used cheap grey conduit and a drill that drilled holes one ft deep the conduit was drilled to run wire at 6" one ft. 2 ft ect up to 6 ft . It surrounded an acre garden and was unplugged when working in it but kept everything out from humans,deer ,down to dogs ,cats, rabbits ,ect./ birds could fly in or groundhogs dig under but it was cheap and effective . He grew his own food and food for his extended family and donated huge amounts to the senior center, He's 80  an  awesome inventive man .. just had a stroke hes recovering from .

We have a great big huge population of rabbits on our farm.

Here are some ways that we have dealt  with them:

1) I made a skirt out of wire fencing and attached it to the already installed 6 foot tall deer fencing. I then laid it out on the ground 2 feet out and either used logs or cement blocks (depending on the area) to weigh it down. I would have loved to have dug down 10 inches and sink it, but in some places our soil was so rocky and/or stumpy that I had to improvise. It has worked great. The only way the rabbits got in over the winter was in an area that my dog destroyed.

2) Sitting on an Adirondack chair with a beer and my air rifle and picking them off at dusk when they start to come out. This is my least favorite, but is very effective and generates some great dog food for the dog who destroyed the fence.

3) Planting a LOT of things - I plant like I raise chicks - some are going to get lost to predation so I pad the numbers of both. Extra produce from the garden goes to chickens, neighbors or compost or I just get creative in the kitchen. I over plant knowing that seed is cheap and its nice to have a bit of a buffer in case my fence fails, my kid leaves the gate open on accident (or I do!), or whatever.

Get a gun. Bunny stew and a nice fur hat for winter.

The chicken wire around the veggies, at least 2 feet high, has worked very well for me for the wild rabbits; however, with the severe coyote problem we have here now, I rarely see a rabbit.  High container gardening works too, as long as the sides are tall enough, such as a big nursery plastic pot, which also deters voles as long as I put gravel or small rock in the bottom so they don't climb in from soil level.

Over planting seems the simplest & cheapest here. Also I like the beer and gun solution. Gives the lie to 'no free lunch'!!

I noticed a rabbit on his hind legs eating the tender buds of my blueberries yesterday! They just look cute!

I know this idea was already shot down, but I have to say that a dog or three has been my only best solution. My dogs were raised with my poultry, and don't bother the chickens ducks or chicks. They have been trained to chase the hawks and eagles. They don't need any training to chase rabbits, mongoose, and monkeys. Small furry critters that actually run away? The "running away" part triggers an instinctive chase-hunt reflex.  My dogs are not very adept hunters, and to date I have never actually seen them catch anything apart from a mongoose that cornered itself under the rabbit hutch - but they sure enjoy the chase!  And critters now know there are dogs on the premises, they don't even try. I haven't seen a monkey here in a couple years now.

I would get two dogs. A medium sized herding/guardian dog, and a smaller terrior or terrior mix. Training the dogs to leave chickens and other farm animals alone, even to protect those animals, while attacking invasive wild animals will be almost instinct to the dogs. At our farm we have a large "pack" of assorted sized and breeds of dogs. They keep rabbits and small creatures in the more wild areas and the outskirts of our property.

When my family lived in Indiana, my mother had a horrible time with bunnies eating the garden.  Her solution?  Plant a bunny garden too.  She put up a small fence around the garden for us, but left the bunny garden free and open.  Since the bunnies had plenty of food without having to work for it, they left the garden with our food alone.

I remember watching the bunnies in the morning munching on their breakfast while I was munching my breakfast.  

I agree with the dog answers but I also find my cats take care of the rabbits and squirrels best.  I haven't seen a "live" rabbit on our property since we first moved in.  The dog and cats have been trained to leave our chickens alone while taking out any other critters that don't belong.  Our dog also takes care of the hawks and buzzards by escorting them loudly off of the property.  I know some will say that you can't train a cat but I actually lock my cat in the chicken coop with the chickens at night sometimes to take care of any rats or mice that may be around.  I think it was actually my dog that did the training though as she has mothered them since they were born.

I'm not inclined to erect a fence around my blueberry plants to protect them from rabbits/ deer: The expense, for one, keeping the area mowed, the difficulty to bury that protection at least 10" below ground...
Urine is a known repellent, even if it has to be applied more often, so we are talking about price of urea [piss] in various forms.
I asked my hubby, (who owns a diesel truck), and he said: "Maybe DEF"?
So I pressed him on it. It turns out that DEF [Diesel Exhaust Fluid] is an additive that cleans catalytic converters of diesels. Hmmm. Sounds like a chemical, and I'm not sure I like the idea...
Then I went to Mr. Google who stated what DEF is made of : "Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) is composed of 32.5% urea and 67.5% deionized water".
So I used my trusty calculator to add 32.5 + 67.5= 100 which means that there is nothing else in DEF.
That left deionized water. I went back to Mr. Google: "The chemical composition of deionized water is simply H2O as it is essentially pure water with all charged ions removed, leaving only hydrogen and oxygen atoms bonded together to form water molecules; it is considered the purest form of water, with no additional minerals or impurities present". Well, at this point, who knew that peeing in your diesel would clean up the catalytic converter???
So,  DEF is weak piss, right? It looks like I can get the stuff for $9 for 2.5 gallons, $16 for 5 gallons.
Since it is weak stuff, I should be able to spray it on full strength.
"Liquid fence" which I compared it to because both are liquids sells for $23.28/ gallon [cheapest] and is sold as "ready to use", so no, it's not concentrated.  I realize that DEF is only 1/3 as strong as "liquid fence", so I'd have to apply more, like 3 times more... but...What is Liquid Fence made of? Back to Mr. Google :"The primary chemical components of "Liquid Fence" deer and rabbit repellent are putrescent whole egg solids, garlic, sodium lauryl sulfate, potassium sorbate, and thyme oil; with the main active ingredient being the putrescent egg solids, which create a strong odor that deters animals like deer and rabbits.
I figured I can't be the only one who thought about using this stuff to protect my garden blueberries, so at this point, I figured I'd ask my permies:
What do you think of this idea of using DEF on/ around blueberries versus "Liquid Fence"?
Hmmm... Maybe I should withhold a few eggs from my girls and once they are good and rotten [not my girls, the eggs] put a few around my blueberries. That might be the cheapest.
I know also that my hubby will piss outside when he is in his shop, as it's too far to run home.
I left a bucket near the door of his shop with mission to pee in it every chance he gets. Maybe I'll break a few old eggs in there too, for good measure?

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:What do you think of this idea of using DEF on/ around blueberries versus "Liquid Fence"?
Hmmm... Maybe I should withhold a few eggs from my girls and once they are good and rotten [not my girls, the eggs] put a few around my blueberries. That might be the cheapest. I know also that my hubby will piss outside when he is in his shop, as it's too far to run home. I left a bucket near the door of his shop with mission to pee in it every chance he gets. Maybe I'll break a few old eggs in there too, for good measure?

When are your blueberries being attacked? I've found repellants can be good in the growing season when the rabbits have lots of alternatives. If the blueberries are getting attacked in the winter, the rabbits can be super hungry and will ignore the deterrents. On the plus side, a hungry rabbit is MUCH easier to trap than one that is well fed.

John Wolfram wrote:

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:What do you think of this idea of using DEF on/ around blueberries versus "Liquid Fence"?
Hmmm... Maybe I should withhold a few eggs from my girls and once they are good and rotten [not my girls, the eggs] put a few around my blueberries. That might be the cheapest. I know also that my hubby will piss outside when he is in his shop, as it's too far to run home. I left a bucket near the door of his shop with mission to pee in it every chance he gets. Maybe I'll break a few old eggs in there too, for good measure?

When are your blueberries being attacked? I've found repellants can be good in the growing season when the rabbits have lots of alternatives. If the blueberries are getting attacked in the winter, the rabbits can be super hungry and will ignore the deterrents. On the plus side, a hungry rabbit is MUCH easier to trap than one that is well fed.

Good point, John. In the winter, they are also less likely to carry worms, so they should be good to eat. I started noticing some shoots that were eaten in mid-December. And I'm pretty sure they are rabbits because of the footprints.
What kind of trap do you recommend? I had one of those kind traps to catch live rabbits but they never took the bait.