Rabbits eating plants

[slugworth]

One greenhouse I go to had no speckled roman plants this year,he claimed rabbits ate his plants.
Never heard that before.He claims to have the crime on video.
I lost 3 mr. stripey to rats over the weekend.They ate the plants down to the nub.
I went outside to light the grill last night and saw a rat so I know he was the guilty one.
I put out poison pellets for them after seeing that.

[MissS]

I have had the rabbits eat mine too. I saw it. I no longer keep my flats of tomatoes on the ground. The baby bunnies will often eat the lower fruit if I don't protect them.

[slugworth]

I need a greenhouse with a lock on the door.
I bought a laundry basket at the dollar store for 1 of the plants.
It has enough holes for sunlight and the holes are small enough to keep the rabbits at bay.
in the past I trimmed the bottom of the basket so plants can grow upward but the bottoms were full coverage.
And the basket supplies support so no staking.

[Shule]

Our neighborhood was colonized with 40-75 big, white, domesticated, free-range rabbits, once. Fortunately, it wasn't during tomato season. They ate some bark off our trees, and made some unsuccessful attempts at digging holes in our yard; maybe they ate some of the flower plants. That's about it.

I think the neighbors trapped a lot of them, and the hawks and/or great-horned owls took some of the others. The rabbits were pretty cool, though. They looked just like one of the two rabbits I had for a pet as a child.

[Paulf]

When we first moved into this home there were lots of rabbits that ate everything we planted. I found some used picket fence to surround the in-ground garden and bought a roll of chicken wire/rabbit fence to go around the bottom. This excluded the rabbits but they still feasted on my wife's flower gardens. Three foot raised beds helped stop that.

Bobcats, foxes, coyotes and barred owls discovered the food supply (along with my pellet gun) and the rabbit population dwindled. They still sneak a flower or two but nothing like before. Deer became the problem, but an eight foot deer fence around the garden excluded them. The deer have even stayed away from the raised beds...gone off for easier pickings I guess. Thank goodness rats are not part of the problem. Now if I can get rid of the raccoons eating the birdseed. Just eliminated #50 this morning. Squirrels have learned to eat the spillage under the bird feeders and not to climb up the poles. Even the turkeys have returned knowing they have sanctuary on our land during hunting season.

[karstopography]

Rabbits are on the rise here. We have Swamp Rabbits, which are basically magnum cottontails that like to go swimming from time to time. I’m seeing these rabbits daily, multiple times, multiple rabbits. My dog chased one into the lake the other day. Okra foliage is a favorite forage for these rabbits.

[TomatoNut95]

Sounds like everyone on this thread needs to go rabbit hunting. I pop mine with my BB gun.

[worth1]

I had rabbits eat all my okra one time.
I didn't even get a chance to shoot and eat one.

[bower]

Snowshoe hares haven't touched tomato plants here. They'll eat anything else if you let them.
Protecting beds with chicken wire is not ideal. They can see what they want to eat, but they can't see the wire, so they run into it, over and over, and try to beat it down or eventually do. Row cover fencing worked better because they can't see past it.
And realistically, they love grass and will happily eat that or other things in the garden instead of beating themselves out trying to get into things they can't even see.
Hares go on a rampage when the moon is full. This is when they will somehow manage to get into fenced areas if they know there's something they like. Grain, unfortunately, is like grass a favorite.

[MissS]

I have been known to use the pellet gun to cut the rabbit numbers down. Even more effective is it get some coyote urine and spread a few drops around the yard. It keeps the bunnies away some but even better, the coyotes will come to check out the new kid on the block. While they are visiting they can have a snack or two. This year I have only seen one bunny. It's time or order more coyote urine before they get out of hand.

[slugworth]

An old woman in a store once suggested I use my own,but if it smells like asparagus it would possibly act like a lure.
New neighbors in the hood have the raised planters on legs to deter rabbits.

[JRinPA]

I have a baby bunny hiding in my garlic patch...I hope it doesn't eat my okra starts I put out the other day. That is one place I can't cover it.

Maybe I'll have to take a hockey stick with next time. Yeah they cute and all but... hockey stick probably the best I could do. Maybe a slingshot with some #4s in the pouch. Need a new one though, I'm sure a 20 year old band will snap in the first dozen pulls.

[JRinPA]

@Shule

Oh my eyes, I read this:

Our neighborhood was colonized with 40-75 lb, white, domesticated, free-range rabbits, once. Fortunately, it wasn't during tomato season...

I was gonna call shennanigans on that.

[Cole_Robbie]

The hemp farmers who had rabbit problems were growing in tilled fields. If the only thing green is your crop, then that's what they eat. Strips of grass between rows for them to munch kept me from having any plants eaten.

[FatBeeFarm]

I have a rabbit living under my front porch, he's been my companion for the last 8 weeks as I work on the garden. It was fun to see his white winter coat change to brown over time. He ate back one of my Rudbeckia starts pretty hard, but mostly left my other plants alone. The Rudbeckia recovered too. My rabbit mostly just grazes on my lawn (mixed fescue and white clover) and I'm fine with that. If he starts eating tomatoes then we'll have to change our relationship. Chipmunks tend ot be my problem. They got to liking my pepper plants and after losing 90% of my peppers to them the last two years I sadly had to set up a bucket trap.

[slugworth]

Chipmunks eat rat poison and go bye bye

[worth1]

@Shule

Oh my eyes, I read this:

Our neighborhood was colonized with 40-75 lb, white, domesticated, free-range rabbits, once. Fortunately, it wasn't during tomato season...

I was gonna call shennanigans on that.

40 to 75 pound rabbits sounds like paradise to me..
I could fill my freezer with them.
One of our protein sources was tame rabbit growing.
The price of one in the store is crazy expensive.
Anyone with any gumption at all raised rabbits.
Fried rabbit with mashed potatoes gravy green beans and poke sallat.

[MissS]

Here, you can't even find rabbit in a grocery store anymore. Nor can you find the world's most consumed protein, goat. I guess that they don't fit into the big corporate's way of mass growing our food too well.

[Whwoz]

Same applies here @MissS, which is sad really. Rabbit and goat both have a pest stigma attached to them here Down Under which probably has something to do with it, plus the good meat goat breeds have a nutrient requirement that does not suit some of our soils. For those who have not eaten Goat, think Lamb without the excess fat.

[worth1]

Here, you can't even find rabbit in a grocery store anymore. Nor can you find the world's most consumed protein, goat. I guess that they don't fit into the big corporate's way of mass growing our food too well.

They tried to sell rabbit at Whole Foods and the protesters lined up.