[Community_garden] Scare rabbits away

[Mike McGrath]

I'd be careful being hippy-dippy complacent about rabbits. I know they seem 
cute and cuddly, but we had a guy from Chicago's park system on my show 
years ago who explained that neighbors insisted the rabbit trapping cease in 
a nearby park and three years later, it was almost a desert; they even 
destroyed mature trees with wintertime bark nibbling!
                                Best,   Mike McG
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vicki Garrett" <vickigarrett at columbus.rr.com>
To: <rowsofbuttercups at yahoo.com>
Cc: <community_garden at list.communitygarden.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 9:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Scare rabbits away


>I haven't tried critter lites, but I read years ago that if you provide
> animals with their natural diet, they won't bother your plants. So we have
> lots of wild plants growing in our yard: wild grapes on the fence, boston
> ivy on the walls, hackberry & mulberry trees in the fencerow, etc. It 
> seems
> to be working.
>
> This spring, we woke up to find one new plant missing every morning . 
> There
> was a rabbit nesting in our front garden, and she was eating the most
> convenient plants. I did some research on rabbit diets. I planted a cover
> crop of oats, barley, peas, and hairy vetch near the rabbit hole and 
> bought
> Plantskydd (natural and nontoxic), supposed to be really effective in
> protecting plants from rabbits and deer. The Plantskydd is still unopened,
> but we haven't had a missing plant in weeks. I can't confirm a causal
> relationship - the clover started to really take off about the same time I
> planted the cover crop, and the Plantskydd might be working on the same
> principal as our air conditioner (as soon as we gave in and bought an air
> conditioner, the weather immediately turned cool). But the soil is being
> improved where I planted the cover crop, and I have a bottle of animal
> repellent if I ever need it. My husband tells me roasting with potatoes 
> and
> carrots would work even better.
>
> BTW, I have a friend who complains about the squirrels taking one bite out
> of every apple (she doesn't mind sharing, but she doesn't want the 
> squirrels
> wasting her whole harvest). Last Sunday, I watched a wren chase a squirrel
> out of the oak tree near the wren house. I'll bet there will be a wren 
> house
> in her apple tree next year.
>
> Vicki
>
> On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 12:11 PM, carl wayne <rowsofbuttercups at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> We have lots of rabbits chewing away in our garden. Does anything humane
>> work to keep them away? Has anyone tried "critter lites" that glow 2 red
>> eyes activated by motion sensor?
>>
>>
>>
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