Well, maybe not death, but I would like it if they didn't eat my collards and kale. Is there anything I can do?
CLOSED: Death to bunnies!
You may want to try a dilute of hot pepper spray - if the plants are fat and sassy they shouldn't take up the capsaicin. Put a drop of a mild dish soap (Ivory, etc.) in with it so that it sticks to the plant a bit longer. That way the little hoppers will get a bit of a nip back when they nibble on your greens. And, of course, wait a bit to harvest :) You could also try staking netting/wire around the patch of greens as a physical barrier, and plant a "sacrificial" patch in a different part of the yard to draw them away.
We had to resort to tall wire mesh tubes around freshly planted pecan saplings. Made the mistake of planting some without protection - the jackrabbits and cottontails chewed them to the ground overnight!!!
We still must grin and bear it when morning breaks and we're sipping coffee overlooking the back yard...at times we've counted up to 45 rabbits looking for breakfast!
~ Cat
Well, I could see having a sacrificial patch for the bunnies, but the problem is,the bunnies wouldn't know which one the sacrificial one was. Well, I guess they would learn it was the one without the pepper spray...
After all, bunnies have to eat, too...
45 rabbits? i have friends, shot guns and dogs. We would enjoy your backyard.
I bought a cheap bb-rifle, the kind you pump because of the squirrels that pillage my garden. It doesn't have enough omph to penetrate them but will bruise the golly gee willakers out of em. All i have to do now is step out side my door or start pumping the rifle and they run like crazy. I imagine it would work on bunnies too. The extra added plus is that you can call me Dead Eye Xeramtheum now in that I've become a pretty good shot with the thing.
X
Last year all my cabbage plants were ravished. Not by bunnies but by pigeons! I decided not to grow that many anymore and the few I do, I will grow under cover. Just for sure......
You could also consider taking a dog. Sheep herding dogs seem to love hunting bunnies down!
On the dog note: my uncle has a little Jack Russell terrier (10 years old!)who terminates woodchucks and carries them home!
Problem with rabbits is they will keep multiplying. Unless you have a dog out there all the time the rabbits won't go away. Cats will kill the small ones if you want to keep the numbers under control. Trap them and move them somewhere else if you don't want to kill them off.
45 rabbits will turn into hundreds very fast.
Live trap them and take them to someones gardeners garden you don't like.LOL
Pepper spray doesn't do all it's cracked up to do.
I have to protect my hots from bugs and critters.
Crickets especially like to eat my drying peppers-the hotter the more they like/eat them.
I don't have cockroaches here but lots of brown camel crickets that love comming inside to eat Hot Pepper sprouts and drying pods.
Aphids use pepper spray for colonge after they have bathed in insect soap and shined up with neem oil.
That way they get all the hot looking mates-they are clean and shiney and smell good too.
I neglected to say that was at my brother's house. I often go visit and he likes to show off the multitude of rabbits. It's a game to count as many rabbits in the mornings!!!
The area is surrounded by undeveloped land...as the area gets developed the patches of bunny living area gets smaller...so they start frequenting yards. The place has been sectioned off into three acre plots and there are neighbors all around but an empy lot behind his...hence the rabbits that venture over.
My nephew's jack russel terrier loves to chase them but doesn't know when to give up...and since the area is unfenced and a highway near by...it's not good for rabbits or dogs. Can't use a shot gun as there are neighbors too. They have their yards fenced off and most have big dogs...which probably end up chasing the rabbits into the undeveloped area.
Guess since there are no more natural predators - like coyotes the rabbits quickly multiply!!! One of these days when I go out there in the early morning I'm going to have to take photos all those buggers!
~ Cat
Hassenpfeffer.
'Nuff said.
:D
Seriously, bunnies can learn to live with us, but they are a nuisance. They don't frequent my tiny little yard, thankfully - but we have crows. And ravens.
Yes, they're different. And no, you do NOT want to face down a raven - things are bigger'n bunnies, around here! *shiver*
maybe that's where all our bunnies went - the ravens ate em?
-Sev
yeah Smokemaster, pepper spray is one of those "hit and miss" things. I try it from time to time on specific situations, but it can be a pain when it needs re-applying so often. LOL on your aphids - those things ARE persistent, aren't they? And camel crickets - woo - good luck with those things. I know that 'gators have been around for millions of years unchanged, I wonder about aphids? I think the wire cage thing may be the best bet for the bunnies (or a nice persistent terrier type dog, or cat), outside of a nice side dressing of hollandaise sauce...
Dead Eye X - I had thought of mentioning a bb-gun, but with no experience I wasn't sure how that would work to "move 'em off". If you don't mind my asking, what kind did you get?
ohhh, you know, I found a solution to aphids/fruit flies/ whatever the heck they are when on houseplants. Maybe it'd work outside.
Flypaper.
Believe it or not, it seems to work wonders for me on the insidey kind. Nothing else did the trick - I even broke my organic mode to go for poison and it did nothing. But when I strung flypaper just over the plants in the 'flightpath' of the darned bugs, I caught em! I only see one or two now, and they're going away. No more huge piles of the darned things.
Now if only powdery mildew were as easy. But try a capgun or a CO2 gun, maybe - they won't kill or seriously injure, but they'll scare the things. And having a cat in the neighborhood should help too.
-Sev
When I started gardening seriously I was devastated by different critters daring to even go near my plants. The birds eating the seeds I planned to harvest and trade, the squirrels digging up my plants and eating my pecans, or frogs burrowing into my pots. Then I started to watch them and found how entertaining they were. I started to sometimes see the benefits of having some of them around so I decided to share. I make time to go out and harvest seeds before it's the bird's dinner time (I did alot of watching to see when they liked to eat), I go out and cover up what the squirrels dug up and leave some of the pecans out for them to eat, and I leave some pots with just soil in them for the frogs (I even bought some "frog huts" I found at a nursery). Now we all live together in my yard; just one big happy family :)
Maybe you could plant extra of whatever they are stealing; that will leave some for you too........
Anaid,
No, that just makes the bunnies fatter.
Too funny and so true, BrightStar!!! :o)
~ Cat
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HI there are little 22 shells that are smaller than shorts ya know long rifle--longs --shorts---then caps--they dont go far and are very quiet --all you need is a singleshot 22 with good sights as they wont eject from a automatic --if they ever are visible---might even bait them with a little something--water in dry zone---just a thought--stevo
stevo, my bunny-loving neighbors would report me to the police...
What they don't know won't hurt them.
You know, for a closed thread, this is pretty lively.