Rabbits eating my petunia leaves!

13 years ago

I plant petunias every year in hanging baskets into portch. This year I also planted some in my flower beds for some color now while I wait for my bulbs and seeds I planted to start blooming. I went out this morning and several of them have leaves chewed off. I'm assuming it is rabbits. While it is posible for deer to roam the neighborhood I have only seen them a handful of times and I see rabbits almost nightly when I take my dog out. Any suggestions to keep this from happening? In the next couple of weeks I plan to plant some petunias I started from seed that my grandfather saved from his favorite petunia last year and I would hate for the rabbits to get ahold of those leaves.

Featured Answer

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

13 years ago

Yes, I have heard that blood meal works well, too. You can find it in the organic section of your garden centers. I've heard, however, that it attracts crows like crazy! Does anyone know if that's true?

I've used a repellent called Shake Away with success in my little veggie areas. A little bit here and there is suggested for that stuff.

Poodle, both of these products work as repellents because of their odor. Blood meal....that's obvious. Shake Away is laced with the aromatic scent of coyote urine. :-)

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Comments (9)

tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
13 years ago
Yep, rabbits. Dried blood or blood meal works well to keep them away.

tj
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Poodle_Mom
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the advice! I'll check those products out when I run my errands tomorrow!
SouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
13 years ago
My dogs love blood meal....will dig for it...good luck with it all.

The best rabbit to deal with is the one in soup.....
dowlinggram
13 years ago
There are quite a few rabbits around my son's house and they seldom touch his flowers. Because he has trouble with growing lawn he seeded the lawn area with clover. The rabbits love the clover. Given a choice between flowers and clover they will mostly choose the clover.

Maybe you could plant a small patch of clover
tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
13 years ago
rhizo- Haven't seen dried blood attracting crows. I think I'd welcome them coming by and plucking a baby rabbit or squirrel away. ;-)

SouthCountryGuy- Although my dogs are curious about the dried blood, they haven't dug for it in the 25 or so years I've been using it (8 different dogs over that time).

dowlinggram- you are absolutely right, once the clover comes up in my lawn the fur rat damage goes way down (but not completely away).

tj
SouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
13 years ago
tsugajunkie....what breed do you have? I have 18 dogs now and I bet 16 would go for blood meal. Actually never mind it serves no purpose to the OP....

Best defense against rabbits is a stew or fence
SouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
13 years ago
dble post...sorry the dogs are racing as it is the beginning of bear season.

This post was edited by SouthCountryGuy on Tue, Apr 9, 13 at 20:25
mrsdowfire
13 years ago
I've heard that cayenne pepper spice sprinkled around the plant works although you have to reapply after rain. I'm trying it this year for the first time.