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Rabbit
Repellents
(Some remedies may also be tried on deer)
Rabbits cause obvious problems
for home gardeners. For most effective control, it is best to
try a variety of remedies, as rabbits may become ‘desensitized’
to some methods. We list several methods below, which our customers
have tried with varying degrees of success. These methods
work by smell, taste, and/or decoy. These are only suggestions
and we are not endorsing any particular method. Your best defense
against rabbits in a vegetable garden is a fence.
Smell: Use these products around plants to repel rabbits
by taking advantage of their keen sense of smell. Rabbits shy
away from anything with the odor of meat or blood on it.
- Dried blood meal. Very water-soluble:
must be re-applied after a rain. Also is a very good source of
nitrogen.
- Mole Med or Scoot Mole. A commercial solution
of castor oil which is non-toxic to birds and mammals when mixed
with water and used as directed.
- Predator Scent. Packaged bottles of fox urine (coyote
for deer), available at Johannsen’s.
- Repel animal repellent. A commercial combination
of dried blood and mothballs.
- Hinder (ammonium salts of higher fatty acids).
A commercial product that may be used on vegetable crops. Foods
may be eaten one day after application.
- Moth balls (naphthalene)
- Human hair. Place 2 handfuls
of hair into an onion bag or nylon stocking. Replace once a month.
- Scoot Rabbit (a mixture of cayenne pepper and Caster
Oil)
- Used kitty litter sprinkled
around the edge of your garden.
- Animal lard smeared on tree
trunks to protect fruit trees.
- Onions interplanted with
other crops.
Taste: These products are applied directly to the foliage.
Most of the products do not wash off, so they may not
be suitable for use in vegetable gardens. They only protect existing
foliage, and must be re-applied as your plant grows.
- Commercial products including
Ropel and Bonide rabbit-deer repellent
(Thiram)
- Limestone or red cayenne pepper sprinkled
on plants when foliage is wet. May be used on vegetable plants,
but sometimes may change the flavor.
Decoys:
- Set plastic snake or
owl decoys in garden.
- Set half filled quart jars
with water around garden. No one is sure why this has been
found effective. Perhaps the breeze over the jars makes a sound
similar to an owl
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