Not only have they eaten all my marigolds and sweet potato vines, they got my tiger lilies yesterday. Earlier in the summer they got into the veggie garden (how, I don't know -- perhaps they brought siege equipment to scale the fence) and demolished the lettuce, cabbage, carrots, and half a dozen other things.
The rabbits around here are voracious, and don't seem to know that they shouldn't like marigolds. Nothing is safe from these guys.
Do Rabbits EVER stop nibbling?
I am sorry that you are having such problems with them, but I don't know of a remedy.
I guess i am lucky not to have that problem, although the squirrels do give me plenty of trouble.
Josephine.
DallasDad, YES bunnys do stop nibbling when they die ! I use to raise them. Jerry
At first I started spraying everything with stinky stuff(liquid fence) and it worked some, but was too much trouble to keep applying over and over(and expensive) so I've started planting things they don't like ( salvias,bat faced cupheas,rosemary etc)and let them nibble away at the tons of Missouri violets and dwarf Katie ruellia flowers I have that are very aggressive growers.On the plants that they are still trying to eat to the ground I put some small fences made of the stiff stuff you rescreen windows with. It's enough that they go on to other easier to reach stuff.I found that if you plant really thick it doesn't look so bad when they start to nibble something.
They are evil this year. They destroyed the veggie garden this spring, and now they are trying to get all the flowers and perennials in the front yard. They are eating lantana, they ate the gourd vines off at the ground, leaving a dead vine on the fence. I hate them, and we have about 10 running around the yard right now. I hate to do it, but we might have to start eliminating the little suckers. It will be hard to explain to my 3yr old girl, but it might be worth it. I am real scared about my fall garden now, and I don't want a total loss on my plantings.
I would not mention eliminating bunnies to a small child. My son, as a three-year-old, was hysterical after our neighbor shot a squirrel he had been watching in the trees. We don't kill or eat squirrel, and she was a sweet old lady with a shotgun and the babysitter let him watch, but that day was a very bad one for our child. All the critters here have been very hungry this year because of the drought. We frequently see deer out in our neighborhood in mid-afternoon. They are eager to graze where lawns have been watered. Maybe the rains will help. We are trapping racoons at the ranch because they have become destructive in their search for food. When we catch one in a live trap, we relocate him to an even more rural area on the Pecan Bayou, where he has a better chance of making a living.
I remember blood meal being good to keep some critters away but I can't seem to remember what. what about cayenne pepper sprinkled around the garden?