In the news from Lake Wobegon this weekend, GK mentioned great hordes of rabbits eating everything in peoples gardens except the tomato plants (which they obviously don't like.)
I haven't had any problems with rabbits this year, after I shot that big one a couple of months ago. Well, Saturday they must have heard Prairie Home Companion, because when I went out in my garden yesterday, something had eaten most of my pepper plants, and the dill was kind of knocked down a little like a smallish animal had laid on it. The tomatoes were untouched.
I set up a Have-a-hart trap where there's a gap in the fence at the corner. I know that's where they get in. When that doesn't work, I'll set the old Victor leg-hold trap. (Don't tell my wife or DD about that one)
I have sort of, with a couple of T-posts, but they can still get it. It's not my fence. If I close it properly, they will just dig under somewhere else and I won't have a single-point where I can set a trap.
I've read that rabbits dont' like blood and bone meal - perhaps it would be worth spreading some and fertilising at the same time rather than using a trap.
They haven't been back since I set out the box trap. Maybe they recognize it. Also, I've used lots of stale urine for fertilizer this week. (not intentionally stale, it just got away from me) Smelled pretty bad when I spread it around. Maybe that offends their sensitive little noses. ;-)
I consider that a myth... because it doesn't bother the rabbits or for that matter the groundhogs around here. It seems logical but I've dealt with a lot of rodents and it's pretty clear that all they think about is food and the scent of death doesn't matter at all.
If you think smaller yet, mice don't mind getting caught in traps set right beside their previously caught, recently dead kin.
The cayenne solution is also a myth. --Tried it and lost the whole year's crop of cabbages to 1 groundhog. He probably could have tolerated Honan cooking. It doesn't work for rabbits either.
Of the rodent species, rabbits are in my experience, easiest to deal with if you fence them out properly as suggested. We put in our fence the spring we lost all our buttercrunch lettuce to rabbits. (I trenched in close to 250' of chicken wire fence with an L shaped bend in it and a gate and lintel in under a day and a half. It looked and looks kinda ramshackle but charming and in keeping with the rest of the place.
To this day the fence has had a 100% success rate for rabbits... and it channels exploring groundhogs to our traps because they walk around the perimeter first.
The issue revolves around, "They have to eat and we have to eat." --They like what we have to eat but don't need to eat it... We have a madly flourishing environment here and don't mind them consuming outside our veg. garden fence. If they get inside the garden, they become fertilizer as a practical, matter of course.
If I understood more about the health of game and had the ability to determine what was healthy enough to eat, I wouldn't mind killing them.
--They would donate our cabbages to the table in another form.
With that in mind, I bend my efforts to maintaining a barrier and a territory that excludes them... Catchalive traps are the only option here due to neighbourhood cats, but if that weren't a consideration I would use anything that would work up.
I have a similar problem with wabbits and squiwwels....
My solution involves a pellet wifle...
I shoots a .177 pellet at 1200 fps and has a telescopic sight.
I have had many delicious meals as a result of the wabbit bait that my garden provides. The wabbit wants my veggies so I give them to him..... on his outside while in the stew pot...
Sometimes you just find things that need killin'
Andy in Eureka, Texas
Eureka, where Ranch Dressing was invented so that our cowboys sitting around a campfire would have something tasty to put on their salads..
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