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A rabbit pushing its luck..

13 years ago

I have a small rabbit here that has decided it is going to systematically eat its way through my two Sagae, I am finding more and more leaves cut off, at a increasing pace....

If it was in the backyard he would have some real sudden health issues, but its out front, and I have got to get this guy out of here,

Comments (18)

  • 13 years ago

    Do you have a dog? Weiner dogs would solve this problem.. quickly too!

  • 13 years ago

    Front yards can be a little tricky...

    A second story window is better than a first... a removed screen and a relatively small opening can provide a downward-angled safe pellet projectile track... the noise is particularly minimized if the muzzle is inside the house...

    Pellet poisoning is is a common problem among our local bunny community.

  • 13 years ago

    if you have a .22

    and a handful of leftover ladyfingers from the 4th

    no one will be the wiser ... usually

    did i say that?

  • 13 years ago

    hahah, I can see I am not alone !

    I have been seeing this rabbit and not bothering it.. It has so many hosta to hide under I probably can't run him off. There are so many common plants around the corner, but it LOVES Sagae. I even think it was him that ate the scape off of my Liberty.. (small plant) However I keep seeing it under the SAGAE that is being massacred constantly, I know its him...

  • 13 years ago

    I just went out and put some lettuce in the live trap, thanks to the size of the Guacamole plant I can hide the trap from the street.. we will see what morning brings !

  • 13 years ago

    Boy, I'm really fortunate. I see rabbits at all hours on my block, but never had any damage to my plants from the bunnies. Ever.

    Perhaps they fear my cat, who kills and eats them? Hm. Maybe they've heard about him through the rabbit grapevine or something.

    Good Luck, LW...Get dat wabbit!
    Don B.

  • 13 years ago

    We still have a very cute little brown rabbit. That is, we just caught it, and it will go to a town park. There might be more. It ate all my grandson's beans in one day. When I put our trap (a larger Have-a-Heart) out with two apple quarters, it just walked in over night and ate 1 1/2 and walked out. So we did it again with that half eaten apple quarter and got that wabbit. We should have had a small trap though, probably will get one. I saw it yesterday run through a wire mesh fence without slowing down. So it is not only the fully grown ones, but also the little wabbits doing it.

    I need to add, that we are very lucky to catch this one, probably it is too inexperienced. I read that the season to catch rabbits is late fall and early spring when there is no food for them around except in traps. In winter food in traps will freeze. We need to do that before spring and rabbits can breed again, like depopulate the wabbit population over winter and no eaten off hosta pips in spring!
    Bernd

    This post was edited by berndnyz5 on Sun, Jul 14, 13 at 9:08

  • 13 years ago

    the trick to baiting those live traps is to hang the bait from a wire above the foot trigger, they will stand on the raised trigger to eat the food, then HOPEFULLY down comes the door.. I didn't have anything good in the fridge for bait, last night. So the rabbit is either afraid of the trap, or didn't like lettuce over fresh Sagae leaves...

  • 13 years ago

    And if you trap the bunny, will you shoot it in the cage or relocate it to a wilder area? Even if a bunny was eating my stuff, I don't think I could shoot it. I'd try chemical repellent or physical barrier means. Just sayin'. Remember, I've had to put up with the squirrels and their divots. Red-hot pepper flakes and a particularly fiery critter ridder powder seemed to have worked, along with calibrachoa finally spreading out over the open areas and ruining their divot-digging space.

  • 13 years ago

    Esther, I cordoned the bunnies off from the front via chicken wire, but fixing that on 200 more ft around the back is too much for me. The bunnies figured out to get through the front to the back via neighbors through the standard wire mesh fence there.
    Since it is not illegal for all stores to sell the life traps to customers, I figure it is also not illegal to remove these critter by using these legal devices. No, we did not kill that cute rabbit. Bernd

  • 13 years ago

    I have a pretty good crock pot recipe when you finally get logical about the whole thing.

    hosta fed rabbit ... tastes very much like chicken, raised on a healthy diet.

    dave

    ^_^ --~

  • 13 years ago

    If I catch it live it will probably get loose at my Moms farm, now, I can't control what the hawks do with him after that ;)

  • 13 years ago

    Our squirrel population is reduced in number because we have both hawks and owls nearby. I was sitting here at my computer, in front of the window, and looked out to see a hawk sitting on a bird perch (an old parrot perch I left out for an extra feeding tray. It was mostly white, so I think it was a youngster, only a few brown streaks on its breast. But the feeder now mostly frequented by the squirrels has multiple blood stains on the top lid. It is a bit gross, but sooner the squirrels than the little wild birds.;

    Now, the mourning dove population over produces because they are the food of many predators. Short incubation time for the eggs, short fledging time for the babies, and they are so ignorant .... short lives..

  • 13 years ago

    We have redtailed hawks living right down the street, which feast on the many pigeons and no doubt squirrels. I don't think I've seen much reduction in the squirrels right around my home, but at least the grown-in foliage and the pepper flakes have eliminated my beef against them, digging divots. Now they simply amuse me with their endless games of chasing each other. I am also seeing the signs of their handiwork in that oak seedlings are appearing where they hid their acorns. I hate discarding them, but there's no room to plant more oak trees. Besides, they're pin oaks, which have a nasty habit of having dying branches which then break off in storms.

  • 13 years ago

    Try Milorganite,,,a natural fertilizer made in Milw. WI,,,bunnies do NOT like the smell...(my nose can't smell it)

    Have used it for 3 years,,,,i appy it in spring and Voila'

    No more bunnies...nothing chewed on...finally can even enjoy my spring crocus...

    jill

  • 13 years ago

    NHA, with the Milorganite, do you think that it might work with squirrels too? **I HOPE**

    ....made in Milwaukee.....what could it be....the mush of hops?

  • 13 years ago

    Just a few comments about postings here:
    ---I'd grown up with the advice to be wary of dressing out wild rabbits before the first freeze. Getting their blood in a small sore can cause rabbit fever-
    ---Moc, if your hawk is a Redtail it is the young-uns that have the brown streaks in the breast feathers. Adults are all white.
    ---Redtails LOVE to eat wabbits. But they have to be really hungry to eat squirrel. There are falconers in Arkansas who hunt squirrels with Redtails. They put metal leggings on their hawks because squirrels are hard to kill and try to bite the hawks feet off. Apparently it is not the squirrels taste that makes the bird cautious. Redtails favorite foods are mice, snakes and lizards.

    Anyway LW, if and when you, or anyone else, does catch a wabbit and kill it, be very careful and use latex or similar gloves.

    Theresa

  • 13 years ago

    mocc,,,it definitely "doesn't" work on squirrels...

    but then again,,,,we feed the squirrels peanuts,,,,they rarely do any harm to anything unless they are "running" from the "pugs"...

    jill