Rabbits are loving animals. They are one of the most popular pets in the United States together with cats, dogs, and freshwater fish. However, when rabbits get into your property uninvited, they can be quite bothersome. In this regard, you should know how to get rid of rabbits.
To get rid of rabbits: use scents, or plant rabbit-repellant flowers and vegetables, create an artificial predator with noise, set up a fence, keep your yard clean, make your yard an open space, protect your plants with nets. So many ideas here you cannot fail – you’ll learn some good new habits and the rabbits should quickly disappear.
How to Get Rid of Rabbits in your Yard Naturally
How do you deal with rabbits in your yard?
There are natural ways (without chemicals and poisons) how to get rid of rabbits in your yard. If you use any or a few of these methods, you can have a rabbit-free yard.
Whether rabbits are scared or annoyed by certain odors or smells, they keep rabbits away from your yard.
1. Use Scents to Get Rid of Rabbits
Rabbits are prey to several common predators. In order to endure the constant threat from predators, rabbits developed their keen senses. Rabbits use their senses to smell to detect predators nearby and to locate food.
Rabbits always keep their distance from unpleasant smells. This is one of the easy-to-do solutions on how to get rid of rabbits naturally.
Strong Perfumes
You can flood a rabbit’s nose with strong perfume. Rabbits find high doses of concentrated chemicals unpleasant and will keep them out.
How to get rid of rabbits with perfumes? Spray perfume to a piece of cloth. Lay the cloth around your vegetable patch. You can also soak pieces of cloth in perfume and strap them around a fence.
Irish Spring soap can also keep rabbits out of their gardens. You can fill drawstring bags with Iris Spring soap shavings and hang them around your garden.
You can also spray (on the soil around the plants and not in the air) strong scents around your flowerbeds and garden.
You need to reapply the strong scents periodically, especially after heavy rain. You can use common sense to determine when to reapply, typically 1-2 times a week depending on the strength of the scent.
Herbs, Spices, and Other Pantry Items
The smell of herbs, spices, and other items in your pantry irritates the nose of rabbits and keeps them away. These strong-smelling natural ingredients will not harm rabbits but are effective rabbit repellants because they can upset the nose of a rabbit.
Here are some common food items that are effective rabbit repellants:
Garlic
The smell of garlic is a delight when you are cooking but its sharp, spicy aroma is a major turn-off for rabbits. You can place fresh crushed garlic around your plants or sprinkle some garlic powder.
You can also buy pre-made garlic sprays or mix some garlic with raw egg and pour the solution around your plants.
Herbs and Spices
Rabbits hate the smell of herbs such as basil, lavender, oregano, and mint. They also dislike the smell of spices such as chili, pepper, and cayenne.
The capsaicin content of chili or chili powder inflames and irritates the membranes of a rabbit’s nose. Sprinkling some chili powder around your yard 1-2 times a week will keep rabbits away.
You can plant rabbit repellant spices around your vegetable beds to create a natural wall of herbs and spices in your yard.
Rotten Egg
Eggs are high in proteins such as keratin and globulin. When keratin breaks down into amino acids that are full of sulfur acid. Similarly, when globulin decays, it emits the strong sulfur smell of hydrogen sulfide.
The smell of sulfur in rotten eggs deters rabbits. You can also opt to buy sulfur powders.
Coffee
Humans love the aroma of coffee. Rabbits, however, dislike the aroma of coffee and will not get near a garden with the slightest scent of coffee.
Coffee can be a harmful deterrent to rabbits because they can succumb to heart failure.
Vinegar
The sharp smell of vinegar is powerful enough to deter rabbits. You can dilute some vinegar in water and liberally spray it in the area around your plants.
You can also try to soak corncobs in vinegar and place them around your plants. Corncobs make the strong scent of vinegar last longer.
Vinegar may make your yard smell, but it will keep the rabbits away.
Lemon Juice
Lemon juice can successfully keep rabbits away from your yard. Spray some lemon juice on areas you need to keep rabbits away.
Hair Clippings
Rabbits hate the smell of human hair because it gives them a fearful feeling that a human is nearby. Gather some hair clippings and scatter them around your yard.
Hair clippings will not only scare rabbits, but they are also good for the soil.
2. Plant Rabbit-Repellant Flowers and Vegetables
Rabbits dislike the scent of marigolds and alyssum. You can plant these flowers around the borders of your garden which are typical entry points of rabbits.
Some other flowers that repel rabbits include Geraniums, Ageratum, Cleome, Lantana, Strawflower, Snapdragon, Sunflower, Crown of Thorns, etc.
The taste of certain vegetables can discourage rabbits from getting near your yard. Rabbits love to eat many of the vegetables in your garden but you can confuse them by similarly planting vegetables they dislike.
Vegetables they dislike will not completely keep rabbits away from your garden, but they can keep them from eating the other vegetables in your garden.
Vegetables rabbits dislike include avocadoes, artichokes, chives, shallots, asparagus, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, corn, and rhubarb.
It is, therefore, advisable to plant rabbit-resistant vegetables together with your other vegetables. This is one of the most effective and natural ways how to get rid of rabbits.
3. Create an Artificial Predator with Noise
Similar to many animals in the wild, rabbits have a long list of predators they need to keep a safe distance from. Foxes are one of the most common animals that feed on rabbits, together with owls, raccoons, dogs, snakes, hawks, etc.
Because of the many predators, rabbits have developed not only their sense of smell but their sense of sound and smell as well. Thus, creating an artificial predator can startle a rabbit.
You can create an artificial predator by way of motion and sound to make rabbits act as though there is a predator nearby.
You can place some cans attached to a string or a wind chime. When the wind blows the cans and wind chime make noise that can make rabbits run away and scare them from returning.
You can also use motion sensors (devices that detect motion) to scare rabbits. Motion sensors will not only detect the motion of rabbits and other animals entering your yard, but you can also equip them with some abilities to deter rabbits out of your yard.
You can have motion-activated sprinklers that can start spraying water once it detects motion. This will not only give unwanted rabbits a cold shower, but it can also shock the rabbits and send them away.
You can also opt to scatter fake snakes (rubber snakes) in your yard. Rabbits are scared of snakes, so they won’t get close enough to check if they’re fake, they’ll just hop into another yard.
As for you, make sure not to forget that you added some rubber snakes in your yard and end up scaring yourself.
4. Set up a Fence
A physical barrier to prevent rabbits from entering your yard is a surefire way how to get rid of rabbits. You can build a fence around your entire yard or specific patches frequently attacked by rabbits.
You should build a strong fence because rabbits can bite and tear almost everything, they can sink their teeth in. You can use galvanized steel or wire.
Avoid using plastic because rabbits can easily tear it apart.
The fences should be high enough (2-3 feet high) because rabbits can be Olympic jumpers.
Rabbits are diggers and they can easily crawl down underneath a fence, so it is advisable to place the fence only a few inches deep in the ground where the rabbits cannot crawl through.
The fence you made may not allow rabbits to jump over or crawl under, but they may just be able to reach the top of the fence and jump down to your yard.
To prevent this, bend the top of the fence outwards so it can be difficult for them to jump across.
5. Keep your Yard Clean
Keeping your yard always clean is also an effective way how to get rid of rabbits.
A Clean Yard Will Not Look Inviting to Rabbits:
- Clear your yard of weeds
- Mow your lawn regularly
- Clear your yard of dead leaves, branches, twigs, etc.
- Close borrows or holes
6. Make your Yard an Open Space
Do not give rabbits a space in your yard where they can seek cover or hide. With many spaces to hide, rabbits will feel more welcome and safer in your yard.
Keep your yard an open space so it will not look inviting to rabbits.
Rabbits prefer to nestle down and sleep while undercover or in any area that provides shelter.
They also feel comfortable feeding on your flowers and vegetables when they are close to cover so they can immediately hide when they smell or hear a predator nearby.
7. Protect your Plants with Nets
A final solution on how to get rid of rabbits naturally in your yard is to use nets to protect your plants.
You can use thin neatly invisible nets you can place over your plants to protect them from rabbits who love to nibble them. These are lightweight nets so they will not weigh down or crush your plants.
Rabbits are vegetarians. They are known to eat shrubs, twigs, blackberries, and raspberries during the winter months.
They are also known to go for broadleaf weeds including roots, shrubs, berries, and fruits in the summer.
In the spring, they love to eat young trees.
Rabbits are not known to be brave animals. They do not like to be found in the open so, they prefer to pass through bushy areas and tall grasses to get to your property.
They will always find ways to enter your yard.
Why Would you Want to Keep Rabbits Off your Yard?
Rabbits are gentle and sweet pets, so why would you want to know how to get rid of rabbits in your yard?
Rabbits have a big appetite for fresh vegetation.
If you spent much effort taking care of your yards, rabbits are more of a threat than cute pets.
Rabbits are herbivorous with a big appetite for all kinds of fresh vegetation including annuals, perennials, woody plants, berries, and vegetables.
The list of rabbit favorites is so long, it is easier to make a list of plants they do not enjoy. They will even eat your colorful plants, as well as blindly bite and tear everything from cloth to wood.
Rabbits have a high reproductive potential
Rabbits reproduce quickly. One rabbit can cause a total yard infestation. One rabbit can give birth to up to six litters of three babies every year. A rabbit gives birth after only 29 days gestation.
Rabbits Damage
One thing going for rabbits is they can be quite tidy. The most damage they can do to your yard is within 2 +1/2 feet of the ground. Rabbits love to chew flowers, leas, clover, beans, lettuce, and more.
The vegetables, branches, and flowers they munch will have clean cuts with sharp edges. This is unlike insects and pets that typically leave uneven edges on damaged plants.
Rabbits in your yard mean a lot of excrement or rabbit manure which is organic waste.
While your garden will benefit from nutritious rabbit manure, they can be quite a handful to clean up.
Brown spots mean a rabbit has feasted on your yard. Rabbits can also leave behind a lot of hair in your garden.
Plants passed their seedling stage are typically spared from rabbit damage.
Final Thoughts – 7 Ways to Get Rid of Rabbits in Your Yard Naturally
You don’t want uninvited rabbits in your yard but when they intrude into your property you also don’t wish to harm them.
How to get rid of rabbits naturally is a win-win solution.
Regardless of which remedy you choose from the above-mentioned ways on how to get rid of rabbits, you are sure not to harm them.
