How to Control Rabbits That Eat Shrubbery

Just a few rabbits can do a lot of damage to carefully landscaped bushes.

While rabbits may be cute and cuddly, they eat a lot - and quite quickly. Only a few rabbits in a yard can extensively damage any landscaping bushes that appeal to their tastes. Rabbits are not easy to scare away, either; they'll be back as soon as the coast is clear to continue eating. While no system is a perfect deterrent, there are numerous obstacles a homeowner can put up to encourage the uninvited guests to look elsewhere for dinner.

Things You'll Need

• Repellent - baby powder, fungicide, dried blood meal, or strong-smelling herbs
• Perennials or annuals that may be planted around shrubs
• 4-foot stakes or posts
• 3-foot chicken wire fencing
• Measuring tape
• Live rabbit trap

Instructions

1. Place a repellent around or on the shrubs to deter rabbits from eating the leaves. Examples: baby powder; a fungicide with foul-tasting and smelling Thiram as an active ingredient; dried blood meal - a powdered blood used in organic fertilizer, produced from meat-processing; or lavender, catnip and garlic. All these repellents, sprinkled around the shrubs, thwart a rabbit's eating habits.

2. Grow other species of plants that deter or repel rabbits around the shrubs. These can be both ornamental and edible to humans but create a deterrent and barrier for the rabbits. Examples include: catmint, bee balm, daffodils, irises, lamb's ears, coneflower, lavender, clematis, tomatoes, black-eyed Susans, foxglove, rosemary, yarrow, rhubarb, parsley, juniper, currants, sumac shrubs, sage, monkshood, marigold, oregano, and clematis.

3. Erect a fence around the shrubs to keep the rabbits away. It should start 3 to 6 inches below the surface of the ground to prohibit burrowing. If using chicken wire, a 2- to 3-foot-height should be sufficient. Bending the bottom of the wire outward keeps rabbits from sneaking under it, if it is not a buried fence.

4. Use live traps to catch the rabbits and remove them from your yard to another location, such as a park, woods or wildlife preserve. Verify that it is legal in your state to do this; rabbits can carry disease, and trapping is prohibited in some states for this reason. Check the traps on a daily basis to make sure you can immediately transport any animals you catch before they become ill or die from starvation, dehydration or injury.

5. Modify the landscaping in your yard to reduce rabbit habitats, making the yard - and your shrubs - less appealing. Rabbits require protective cover, so remove excess vegetation or thick brush around fences, in ditches or around woodpiles. Cut off lower branches of shrubs where rabbits can easily hide. Seal holes and entryways under decks, steps, barns or storage sheds.

Tips & Warnings

• Any applied deterrents - such as the herbs or powder, for instance - will need to be reapplied after rain.

• If children and pets are in your household, exercise caution in using any poisonous repellents, such as fungicides, or toxic plants, such as foxglove, to deter rabbits.

References

• New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station; If Plants Could Talk: Keeping Rabbits Away from Desirable Plants in Your Garden and Landscape; Bill Hlubik; April 2007
• University of Illinois Extension; Soap as Deer/Rabbit Repellent; Susan Grupp
• Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences; Wildlife Damage Control - Cottontail Rabbits; Shannon N. Thurston, et al.
• Wildlife Conflicts Information Website: Cottontail Rabbits
• Farm Fencing: Chicken Wire Fence - How to Make a Chicken Wire Fence

Resources

• Simple Pest Control; Rabbit Control; Eric Ronning
• LewisGardens.com: Deer and Rabbit Resistant Plants
• UC IPM Online; Pests in Gardens and Landscapes; T.P. Salmon, et al.; April 2010
• Missouri Department of Conservation; How to Build a Rabbit Live-Trap II
• Montana State University Extension; Cottontail Rabbit Damage Management; February 2008