As their twitching noses indicate, rabbits sniff a lot. Try sprinkling dried sulfur around or on your plants. Rabbits also dislike the smell of onions, so try planting these around your garden to further deter the furry creatures. To discourage pesky rabbits, try dusting your plants with plain talcum powder.
To make this rabbit repellent, first fill a one gallon container, such as a milk jug, with water. Crush 5 garlic cloves and add then to the water. Add a teaspoon of crushed red peppers and 1 tablespoon of dish soap. Shake the container very well and then place in outdoors in the direct sun for two days.
But don't run to the store for repellant just yet—vinegar is an easy way to deter rabbits from stealing your veggies! Simply soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and place it in a small jar or canister with holes poked in the lid. Place these around the garden, and the vinegar scent will help to keep the rabbits at bay.
Mint and peppermint essential oils are good choices, as are lemon balm and rosemary. You can buy essential oils or make your own. Just can place three to five drops of essential oil onto a cotton ball and place it on the ground by the plants you wish to protect from rabbits.
Scare them away. Lights, shiny aluminum pie tins, and motion scare devices can be enough to ward off rabbits, at least for a time. Dogs and cats running free in the yard are a great deterrent, too.
You can also try turning your back on your rabbit and/or stamping your foot as they do. These are powerful indicators of disdain in the rabbit world, and should your rabbit care what you think, they may be quite effective.
One of the best ways to control rabbits is with chicken wire fencing. This mesh fencing material is available with holes under one inch in diameter, the maximum size necessary for keeping adult rabbits out of the garden. Dig a trench eight to 10 inches deep around the garden area.
Sprinkling coffee grounds among your plants may help to ward off rabbits and other small mammals due to coffee's powerful scent. Plus, it composts naturally over time, giving your plants some extra nutrients!
Generally, the following oils are considered safe for rabbits: lavender, lemon, orange, fennel, peppermint, eucalyptus. And these oils are generally NOT safe for rabbits: anise, clove, oregano, tea tree, wintergreen.
Protecting Plants
There is no better or more economical way to keep rabbits out of the garden than good chicken wire, or wire mesh perimeter fence, bottom bent outward and sunk to a depth of at least 6″ under the soil, and at a height of about 3 feet. You can also protect individual plants or rows with cages, or mesh.
Arm & Hammer TM Baking Soda will help keep rabbits away from your plants. “Sprinkle baking soda around your vegetable garden. Make a thin but visible ring of baking soda around each plant. This will dissuade rabbits from nibbling on them.
ACV is known for keeping the rabbits fur softer and shinier. Many rabbit breeders feel that by adding ACV to your rabbits water this will result in healthier rabbits by increasing the nutrient absorption capabilities of the G.I. tract as well as helping with the whole digestive process.
Spread human hair around the garden. In addition to deterring rabbits, the hair will break down into good fertilizer. Simply ask a hair salon for a bag of cut hair [source: Utt]. Plant clover or plantain weeds near your garden, as rabbits will prefer these to your vegetables [source: Utt].
You can protect shrubs or saplings by wrapping their bases with aluminum foil. The foil should at least be as high as your waist because deer are very adept to feeding on plants that are shorter than they are. This foil force field can also deter other pesky nibblers like mice and rabbits.
Liquid Fence Deer & Rabbit Repellent Ready-to-Use2 repels deer and rabbits before they feed. This ready-to-use liquid formula repels deer and rabbits from landscaped ornamental gardens, flowers, shrubs, trees and vines. The repellent works on scent, so deer and rabbits don't have to take a bite to be repelled.
Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, and pocket pets are also at risk. Because of their especially sensitive respiratory tracts, birds are at particular risk when using essential oil diffusers. Essential Oil concentrates that are known to be Pet Poisons include: Cinnamon, Citrus (d-limonene), Clove, Eucalyptus, Pennyroyal.
The results showed that the leaves of alpine eucalyptus trees, also known as snow gums, form the biggest part of the rabbits' winter diet.
Lavender is one plant the rabbits do not like.
Natural Insecticide Spray for creepy crawlies and animals in gardens – Use Epson salts on your lawn and in your garden to safely and naturally get rid of plant pests from the creepy crawly kind to the animals like groundhogs, rabbits and deer that like to munch on the green leaves and food.
Baiting is one of the most effective ways to reduce rabbit population over large areas and should be considered as a precursor to further rabbit control based around warren destruction. Significantly reducing rabbit populations immediately before ripping will provide better long term management.
That's right, mothballs are an effective, yet potentially harmful, way to keep rabbits out of your garden or yard. Mothballs work by releasing a strong, pungent odor that rabbits find unpleasant. This smell will deter rabbits from entering an area where mothballs have been placed.
Plant onions and garlic around the perimeter of your garden to discourage rabbits and deer from entering. Rabbits generally know better than to eat garlic or onions, which can trigger severe anaphylactic reactions, and even deer seem to find these powerfully potent plants less than appealing.