There are several species of wild rabbits—most are called cottontail rabbits—who, between them, live across most of North America. Cottontails like to live at the edges of open areas. In fact, they are rarely found in dense forests or open grassland.
This love of edges means they love our suburbs. Yards, parks, playgrounds, and office parks, often with small natural buffers in between, have lots of edges between small areas of different habitats that rabbits love.We have had an enormous amount of folks talking about rabbits eating and crapping in lawns and landscapes causing "brown or dead spots" all over the yard. Wild rabbit’s start to breed around four months of age and the can have over 50 offspring in a year. The good news is that wild rabbits are prey animals with a life expectancy of about seven months.
Urine Burns Grass - Like dog urine, rabbit urine is acidic and will kill grass in spots wherever it occurs. You might be able to train your dog to use out of the way places for its elimination needs, but you can't train wild rabbits, so when they visit your garden, they urinate as well as eat grass and other plants.
Diagnosing Rabbit Damage - Rabbits are fairly large animals, so it's easy to spot them when they forage on your lawn. If you don't catch them in the act, look for their droppings near the areas of your lawn that they have damaged. Try diluting cayenne pepper with water and spraying it around the edges of your lawn areas once a week. You might need to reseed the damaged areas, but this remedy might help to deter rabbits from returning to the area.
Repellent Products and Plants Can Help - Commercial products are available at nurseries and online that claim to repel rabbits and other animals. Some mimic the scent of rabbit predators. Some people believe that sprinkling coyote urine around the periphery of your yard will repel rabbits. Rabbits find certain plants unappealing and might not venture into a lawn area that contains them around its border. Such plants include baby's breath, lavender, lily of the valley, foxglove, coral bells, ornamental sages, forget-me-not, yarrow, Oriental poppy, ornamental onions, day lilies and tulips.
We recommend a trip to your local Dollar Tree Store for a few pinwheels and rubber snakes for the flower beds. These and a regular watering regiment is the cheapest and safest method we recommend!
(Article by Caryn Walz LI8895|BPAT 8606 |Certified Landscape Auditor)
This love of edges means they love our suburbs. Yards, parks, playgrounds, and office parks, often with small natural buffers in between, have lots of edges between small areas of different habitats that rabbits love.We have had an enormous amount of folks talking about rabbits eating and crapping in lawns and landscapes causing "brown or dead spots" all over the yard. Wild rabbit’s start to breed around four months of age and the can have over 50 offspring in a year. The good news is that wild rabbits are prey animals with a life expectancy of about seven months.
Urine Burns Grass - Like dog urine, rabbit urine is acidic and will kill grass in spots wherever it occurs. You might be able to train your dog to use out of the way places for its elimination needs, but you can't train wild rabbits, so when they visit your garden, they urinate as well as eat grass and other plants.
Diagnosing Rabbit Damage - Rabbits are fairly large animals, so it's easy to spot them when they forage on your lawn. If you don't catch them in the act, look for their droppings near the areas of your lawn that they have damaged. Try diluting cayenne pepper with water and spraying it around the edges of your lawn areas once a week. You might need to reseed the damaged areas, but this remedy might help to deter rabbits from returning to the area.
Repellent Products and Plants Can Help - Commercial products are available at nurseries and online that claim to repel rabbits and other animals. Some mimic the scent of rabbit predators. Some people believe that sprinkling coyote urine around the periphery of your yard will repel rabbits. Rabbits find certain plants unappealing and might not venture into a lawn area that contains them around its border. Such plants include baby's breath, lavender, lily of the valley, foxglove, coral bells, ornamental sages, forget-me-not, yarrow, Oriental poppy, ornamental onions, day lilies and tulips.
We recommend a trip to your local Dollar Tree Store for a few pinwheels and rubber snakes for the flower beds. These and a regular watering regiment is the cheapest and safest method we recommend!
(Article by Caryn Walz LI8895|BPAT 8606 |Certified Landscape Auditor)
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