Rabbit Repellents

Rabbit Repellents

Rabbits are destructive set of creatures which must be kept away from your garden by all means. They spend most of their day eating and scouting for food source. Give them a chance, and you will find farm, garden or landscape in a sorry state. To avoid this from happening, you will need a combination of rabbit barriers and diversions.

Deterrents can take many different forms; scent repellents, commercial repellents and natural repellents. However, we shall be mainly considering the different forms of barriers and diversions, and how to effectively use them to keep away rabbits.

Fencing

Rabbits have palate for plants with tender shoots and supple leaves. The problem is that this type of plants are barely found in the open field, but are in abundance in private gardens. So, if you have a thriving garden and you have at some point spotted a rabbit, chances are they have already started eating away your precious plant. Before things get out of hand, you will need to erect a fence.

If done properly, fences can effectively keep away bunnies from your garden. Avoid using materials like plastic or fiberglass for constructing a fence because they are soft and rabbits can easily chew their way through. Your best bet here is metals – coated metals for that matter. Coated metals are the best option because they hardly suffer rust, and so able to stay strong for a pretty long while. Also, the fence should be high enough to prevent rabbits from hopping over (anything north of three inches will do), and also should be compact enough to prevent rabbits from squeezing their way through.

Fencing has its set of limitations. A determined rabbit would tunnel its way beneath a fence, especially if there is a reward. To solve this problem, install flashing round the fence as this would make it difficult for a rabbit to dig through. Most importantly, ensure the gate is locked at all times, and should for no reason be left open even for a split second.

Electric fencing

An electric fence is an excellent rabbit deterrent. It works by stunning any wild animal including rabbits that makes an attempt to enter a protected property. For safety sake, ensure the fence doesn’t deliver high voltage because your kids or pets can accidently touch it. For better results, the wires of the fence should be spaced by nothing more than four inches – anything more would make it easy for rabbits to squeeze their way through.

Diversions

Rabbits will only visit your garden when they can only find their favorite deli there. They will easily abandon the idea of invading your garden once they find something they like close by. To create a diversion, plant clover some distances away from your garden – rabbits love clover, and won’t mind eating a ton of it. They good thing about clover is that they are quite easy to source. You could also try wild violets as they serve as desserts for rabbits.