Really, relocate rabbits? I've never heard of doing that. Humm, must be a town dweller thing...

'round here we generally "relocate" them critters to a spit...
Looks like you just missed hunting season for those wascally wabbits.
:-)
Deb

Here is a link that might be useful: hunting season in MI

Sorry, double post.

Deb

This post was edited by Dgregory on Wed, Apr 24, 13 at 20:35

Be veeewy quiet....

Relocating wildlife is against the law in Mass. Sending them to Don's spit, however, would be fine. Check your local wildlife laws.

Steve

I take bars of Irish Spring soap, break them into chunks an spread that in all my beds. I grow over 800 hostas and every year the rabbits would eat my 'Fruit Punch' down to the ground, since I've been spreading the Irish Spring no more rabbits and the gardens smell fresh and clean :)

I just closed one hole in my backyard fence, put up 20 ft of chicken wire mesh fence behind an aluminum fence, 40 more feet to go.to keep them out.

20 bars at Sam's Club for less than nine bucks .. I'm willing to give it a try!

12 bars done. Use a potato peeler. Getting ready to spread it out in the gardens now.

I was hoping the very cold winter here would kill off a lot of the rabbit and deer population here. I haven't seen deer..... yet; but the rabbit population is doing fine.

Jon

Milorganite will not only keep rodents and deer away, it feeds the soil.

Millorganite works as a repellent, it greens up lawn and plants (not as good a fertilizer as synthetic).....dogs love it, roll in it and after a rain Millorganite will stink and probably your dog.

Jon

I like-

3 eggs

Squirt of dishwashing detergent

Cajun pepper

You could add garlic, onions any other pepper you might have

Maybe 3/4 gallon of water

Mix thoroughly in a blender.

Strain through cheesecloth (or a coffee filter) into a sprayer.

Spray onto all foliage you want to protect.

Repeat after rain.

Egg is the main ingredient in many deterrents. It seems the sulfur smell from the eggs keeps them away. The detergent helps to spread it evenly and stick. I think it makes the leaf surfaces pop a little as well. It is cheap and effective. The rotten egg smell is not detectable...by humans (at least not this one); I can smell the Cajun Pepper. It seems to work on rabbits and deer.......

Jon

You just need three weiner dogs! Our's chase out marmot,rabbit and squirrel. They would rather do them in (and have)They know them by name and will spend the day on guard. Off duty in the picture

AWwwwwwww, Fay, I showed this to my DH. I told him the magic number of weiners was THREE so we are one short. Sounds like a good enough reason to me to go look for the red one. I was looking for a red when I found Dolly. She is now 6 months old and I can imagine the fun of having the third one around.

I had three many years ago. I always said it was like having a bucket of worms. Nothing like three little weiners to make someone smile and laugh out loud. They teamed up and caught rabbits and squirrels, and one specialized in catching wild birds which came to the dog food and water bowls. He hid those in his blankey for me to discover when they started having an odor.

The stinky egg mixture works very well but clogs the sprayer regularly. Any ideas of how to keep that from happening? The soap trick works for deer (for a little while) but definitely not rodents. They don't care and would probably eat the soap. Cayenne pepper is much better for rabbit repellant.

As far as Milorganite goes, it doesn't smell after a rain unless you use way too much. The dogs never seemed to bother it. (I wish they felt the same about road kill!)

the sprayer does get clogged with the pepper mostly. I sprayed today and had a problem with clogging. I have never tried the coffee filter instead of the cheese cloth. I think this will solve the problem. It will surely filter out anything that could plug the spray.

The egg does stink to the varmits, but I don't smell anything but the pepper after spraying. I don't think pepper smell would over power rotten eggs.

My dog, Shasta got a small squirrel yesterday as I found the tail on her run. That's one baby bunny and one squirrel...that I know about. She terrified a family of raccoons. I wondered how they put up with it and stayed, until one day I saw three baby racoons poking their head out. Once big enough they moved out of the neighborhood. I have a pair of Eastern Red Shouldered Hawks in a big pine, but they don't seem to be able to keep the rabbits in check. Eerie when one of the hawks flies over and casts a huge shadow on the ground.

Shasta; the hunter.

This post was edited by jonnyb023 on Sun, Apr 28, 13 at 18:14

good topic. last night I step out on the porch & a big bunny was running around in the front yard, I guess the Coyotes are not doing their job, despite the fact that I could hear a bunch of them howling in the background.
so far the suggestions here aren't practical for this large of a garden, so as in the past I guess lead poisoning will have to be it ;-(

Don't try a coffee filter for the egg solution. I tried it this morning and it would take a week to get it through. I blended it well and filtered it through about 4 layers of cheese cloth. I also have a 1 3/4 liter pump sprayer that has an adjustable nozzle and a fairly large orifice. Flowmaster is the brand, model 56HD....Walmart??? Link below to manufacturer's website with pic. They list Walmart, Home Depot, Meijers as places to buy.

It works for me and I had no plugging even when it reached the bottom. I was out at 5:30 AM (Shasta couldn't wait any longer) and just in time as 3 rabbits showed up just after I finished.

Jon

Here is a link that might be useful: Model 56HD pump sprayer