Funny, that although I'm located in a region of significant forest that only a few times have I ever seen a rabbit or evidence of .... though, oddly enough, after having stated this of very recent, I just spied rabbit tracks in the snow, hopefully they'll keep to the forest or cross paths with the foxes. lol.

I haven’t see rabbits but I am sure rats/moles/voles will come in a month. It might help to put a wired cage around the plants

Come early November I do put fencing or "tents" around several but this year seems to be a bit of an anomaly as previously the "unprotected" plants did just fine but with the extra cold and snow, in December and now into January the rabbits seems more desperate. I had almost 3 feet high of fencing around one Japanese Maple but as the snow accumulated, eventually the 3 feet became two feet and was now accessible to them.

(Rabbit/Deer repellent spray has had zero effect)

I'm not good at identifying tracks, plus the dog makes tracks in the snow and it all kinda gets jumbled together. I do have rabbits around, and definitely deer. I saw some tunnel holes around my smaller fruit trees, not sure what made them. I don't mind so much if the critters live underground there just keep your teeth off my trees! I used to have a big fat groundhog that had a burrow at the edge of my perennial garden but he (she?) never bothered any of the plants. My theory was they won't eat too close to where they live, prey survival strategy and all. Eh, who knows -- it left my stuff be so I let it be :0)

They are so darn maddening. They attacked a Schisandra propinqua when its 'wall o water' BLEW OVER in the insane windstorm a week or so ago. It was some of the most intense wind I can remember in winter!

I know for a fact there are both foxes and feral cats around here, and it hasn't seemed to stop them. I guess it could be worse though [shrug emoji]

And yes that plant is supposed to taste bad or toxic to them - they didn't get the memo! They might have just nibbled most of the main stems, until they determined it wasn't worth their while. And I know it wasn't the wind...it looked ok right after the storm, and I delayed putting a fence around it. Bad mistake!

We have many, many feral cats in the neighborhood; I see them traveling through the yard frequently. The problem is several neighbors put food out for them, so the cats never become good hunters. They act like they're hunting but don't have the drive of being hungry and so only make weak attempts to catch a rabbit, just because they're cats. I've never seen a 'kill' around here. <rant off>

I left my J. Communis unprotected last year and there was some bark removed in several places but hardly noticeable this summer. This year, I left it open too just bc it's getting so large and I'm getting tired of the ongoing, buying more CW, adding more CW, etc.

I'll probably just see where it sprouts from and chop it down in the spring and let it regrow from the central part again. 😑

My rose bush got pruned level with the ground last winter so that got protected this year. You can see the rabbit tracks going around the inaccessible winterberry bushes heading to the juniper (it just snowed/blew last night so these are all fresh tracks).

Is that rabbit tracks I see around the P. Abies?

Yes, they've nipped some branch tips around the lower portions. NBD *if* they leave the trunk alone. 🤞🫤🤞 (I'm out of CW).

Bill you are probably right about that. There used to be one lady who was a major 'feral feeder' down the street...they were all over the place but not making much of an impact. Right after she left, there was a real country bumpkin family 2 doors down, who had 2 feral/outdoor cats deliberately for pest control of their big vegetable garden. I presume they didn't feed them specifically to force them to hunt, because those cats made a *big* difference. Those were the only two years I could enjoy my wonderful hybrid disease resistant hazelnuts. Then they decided to cash out when COVID made rural RE prices start to skyrocket, even around here. They moved to Alabama where one of them was from IIRC. Now it's back to no hazelnuts, and stupid rabbits nibbling a lot of things that are new to them. [one of their cats was run over, which is one reason I've decided I could never have barn cats. I'm a softie, I'd get too attached to them. My indoor cat leads a life of total luxury.]

They do seem to 'learn' what to avoid in my garden. For example 15 years ago when I started growing firma grafted firs, they probably destroyed one. Nipped almost all the buds off, without seeming to eat them...it never fully recovered. Knock on wood but in recent years they leave even small conifers alone. Still when I plant a super rare one like Picea smithiana, I sure as hell am going to protect it for the first few years!

Huge deer population in my area. Rabbits moved in 3 years ago. Both are very destructive. A bobcat moved in 1 year ago that makes regular circuits through my yard. Haven’t seen a rabbit in the last 6 months…

Rabbit do run in cycles. I think in the 5–6-year range.

Once they get overpopulated, they become susceptible to a disease called tularemia. It can pretty much wipe them out for a few years but not totally eliminate them. Eventually, in a few years, they repopulate the area. We're in the 'up' cycle at this time.

re: feral cats.

A lady came to our door and asked if we could think of a way to keep the number of feral cats down. Turns out, she was feeding at least two dozen feral cats around her place.

I told her there was no way I would feed feral cats.

She lost interest and went across the street and talked to a guy who feeds at least 16 feral cats of his own, some 2nd and 3rd generation. Some of the inbreds are born without eyes and other horrible defects.

????

Guess I'll buy more chicken wire.

DF,

I haven't had a deer problem for almost 2 years now.

You probably read the thread I posted in about deer deterrents.

I use 1" deep milorganite to a pail. Pails placed in places around the yard.

I'm up to 16 pails and I also use it for fertilizer around the yard.

Yeah cat people can be, ugh, eccentric. I heard that when the lady I talked about moved away, the new owners had to replace a lot of drywall to get the smell out.

I feel compelled to point out I recently tested myself for toxoplasmosis, just out of curiosity, and I'm double negative. (IGG/IGM) Never had it. I'm a natural born cat lover harharhar.

I was raised with cats and dogs and had them around most of my life.

In these later stages of life, I like the freedom, impulsively taking off on a trip and not have to worry about anything but me and dw. I know that might sound selfish but once you're my age, you don't have to explain things anymore. lol.

When I first moved here, I loved having a couple feral cats around and they were efficient.

Did what I could JIC to keep the bunnies off the trunk of the Norway spruce.

Never hurts to have a 'few' extra garden stakes on hand. 🤭

And I've never had smaller Pines chewed but I hope to avoid the worst of the worst by putting a couple tree tubes on the lower trunk of the Pinus Banksiana from seed.

I noticed this morning, when I opened the curtains on the patio door, it was still dark, but I could see the dark blob against the white snow and knew it was one of our friendly neighborhood bunnies, under the bird feeder, cleaning up the bird seed that the starlings scatter all over while picking out just what they want.

A little later, after sunup, I looked out and notice tufts of fur, rabbit fur, scattered in an area, several foot wide, near the bird feeders.

The wind had blown some of the fur away already by the time I got out for the picture but there was a lot!

There weren't any cat tracks in the snow so I'm thinking it was a bird of prey like a hawk or owl.

Whatever it was, there was quite a fight going on at -21d, just before sunup.

No sign of the rabbit, so it either escaped or got carried away.

Yes....same story here. I did manage to put wire cages around 3 new saplings I planted in the spring and they have been untouched, thankfully, but...I began renovating a very large bed last year and in the fall I planted new shrubs and moved perennials and roses into the bed. Just a beginning, but, I just didn't have the time or energy to put wire around them all and sure enough they have chewed a lot of them just about to the ground. I'm sure they will all come back next year but a lot smaller than they were. I'll have to spend a lot of time making cages next year.

They have been doing this for a long time. They never used to be a problem, even when we would see rabbits in the yard, they never touched shrubs and branches during the winter. But...we have an overpopulation of rabbits in this neighborhood. Despite the presence of Bobcats last year and coyotes for years.

This year, I think I may have them making homes in the yard, or more than one, because during the snow and after the snow, I can't believe the amount of rabbit footprints are every where.

I am trying to live and let live with them. I wonder what I could do to give them something to eat during the winter, so they would leave the shrubs alone? I think about putting out fresh carrots with tops, but then I think they'd probably eat those and the shrubs and I might find I am attracting every rabbit for miles. [g]

Anyone else have any ideas besides miles of wire fencing?

I usually throw out not so good lettuce, fruit, and stuff in the ditch at the property line. I do not think we get more than is already here. We usually have one to nest and raise a brood, but the coyotes and hawks have gotten to be so many, I do not see many rabbits, squirrels, or chipmunks anymore.

Love this thread!

I remember as a 5-8 year old finding the first baby bunnies in our yard. My siblings and I thought they were so so cute.

Fast forward 15 years and the yard was overrun with rabbits as there were no predators. At night when you pulled into the driveway, numerous disturbed rabbits grazing on the front lawn would begin hopping up and down. It was like watching corn kernels popping in a popcorn machine!

It was a battle to keep them out of the large vegetable and fruit gardens and they decimated the flowers and shrubs.

Even our beagle gave up on chasing them as they were too numerous.

Good times!

Sherry - Lettuce...I might try that!

Design Fan - It sounds like you have a few more than I do! How did you keep them out of the vegetable/fruit garden?

JFWIW:

I checked the P. Abies today.

There were still rabbit tracks close to it, with them chewing some on the lower branch tips but they haven't tried to penetrate the garden stakes surrounding the tree and haven't done any damage to the trunk.

:^)

@prairiemoon2 z6b MA - low rabbit fencing around the vegetable garden and strawberry patch kept the rabbits out. No fencing around the flower gardens so there was damage.

I have so much snow on the ground, I can't really walk around and see where the rabbit tracks are. I do see some that go to the end of a veggie bed and then back away in another direction. I wonder, rabbits don't hibernate in the winter, do they?

DFan, how high was the fencing you put around the garden?

As I mentioned earlier in this thread it is my younger Japanese Maples that have been ravaged by rabbits. I clearly was lazy in not protecting them better in the Fall when I had the chance to.

Sorry about your maples, Rouge, I did the same thing and didn't protect roses in the falll. I was just out front looking at my bed and noticed a lot of small brown spots on the snow around Julia Child. For a minute I thought it was rose hips that fell off the bush, lol....nope. Rabbit pellets! On a closer look, they have eaten 2 ft of canes above the 2ft of snow. And perhaps they chewed the bottom half before the snow and I didn't pay attention. And then I looked at Beverly that has woodier canes and yup, they hit her too. Wow! I'm going to have to cut them both back to the ground, just about.

I don't understand it because last year I had a very large Julia Child. I remember being pleasantly surprised that the long canes I left were alive to the tops. So they couldn't have chewed it up last year.

Evidently I'm going to have to buy stock in a wire fencing company next year!