Putting food like that out will attract skunks, possums, raccoons and foxes. Skunks and raccoons like to tear up lawns looking for grubs and earthworms. It's not a great idea. You could try trapping, but other rabbits often move in to take their place. I have done the same with squirrels, but if you don't do it continuously then next year there are the same amount. You could try those fake owls, and fake coyotes, but I suspect over time the rabbits will figure out they aren't real, but if you move them around it might keep them at bay.

Thanks very much. I won't place food out on the lawn, then, for all animals to feast on. But what if I feed the 2 roaming neighborhood cats by hand whenever I see them? Would that make the cats keep the rabbits away for good? Or would the cats just harm the lawn in their own way?

I tried a trap but the only things I caught over a month were a possum and a mockingbird, Of course, I released both. The same mockingbird got caught several times. The rabbits and squirrels seem to be too smart in my neighborhood to enter the Haveahart rabbit trap.

I tried fox urine powder (or was it coyote urine powder?), but it didn't work longer than a couple days.

A retired elderly woman in my neighborhood said she was bitten in the leg by one of the cats after it got jealous that she was also feeding the second cat. But she likes cats and still feeds both of them.

I wouldn't feed them, I don't think they will have much interest in the rabbits either way. You would be better off with a dog like a terrier to chase them away. The best way of course would be to shoot them, but that usually isn't a good idea in a neighborhood environment.

Scatter some mothballs around the yard to see it that keeps the animals away.

Thanks for the mothball idea. I might try it, but am really hoping the cats will do the work for me. Doesn't anyone here think that the 2 roaming neighborhood cats can somehow be coaxed into keeping a special eye on my lawn?

I'm tired of chasing the rabbits away to prevent anymore bare lawn spots.

But I'm also concerned if I feed the cats when I see them, the cats might eventually cause their own lawn problems?

I don't know if it makes a difference, but the rabbits might actually be hares.

I have had a horrible time with an unchecked rabbit population in my neighborhood which has been eating my lilies and other perennials resulting in an horrific loss of blooms.

For 2 weeks now I have been leaving a can of tuna fish out at night for a couple of the stray hood cats to snack on. I haven’t seen a rogue rabbit in my yard since! This has worked better than any other method I’ve tried to date.

No issues yet with other unwanted animals like skunks or possums, but it’s still winter here so that could change for the worse once Spring has sprung.

I have to smile a little at the notion that anyone could coerce a cat to do anything that they don't feel like doing. If the cats were interested in taking care of the rabbits, they would have dispatched them already.

Sorry you have issues with rabbits though.

One of the ways to take care of rabbits is to encourage a natural environment in the neighborhood. A natural environment has many predators, coyotes, foxes, several types of hawks, etc. It also has things like vultures. In a functioning natural environment you don't have to worry about rabbits, because after many in the spring, they will be reduced by the predators.

If you have feral cats in the neighborhood that may actually be your problem because they are messing up the natural environment. They are killing off the small animals that the large predators need to survive.

I agree that a dog would be more effective than cats. obviously not a house dog, but the type that likes to chase and hunt. Cats hunt little things (mice, birds).

live traps & a high powered airgun. I drown squirrels & skunks & relocate or eat bunnies.

A cat has adopted our community garden. She loves to hunt. She has been witnessed with the baby rabbit in her mouth and dead babies are strewn around. She sit for an hour staring at the wild garden that abuts our plots -- just waiting for a stirring.

If you have indoor cats and encourage strays and feral cats you are asking for trouble. I had to replace the screen cloth in several screens last fall because they were torn by the stays and feral. The way we open the windows, the inside cats could not have caused the damage.

I suspect the strays and feral cats could damage screens if they thought they had reason to get in to your house.

That being said as mentioned previously there are many other animals hat would be attracted to food placed outside. Just because you done see them it does not mean you don't have them. We had seen every thing that we expected was in our yard but raccoons. Yesterday after a year of having the camera we saw our first raccoon.

So far we have not seen the bears and armadilos that have been seen in the area. (Wake and Johnston Co NC)