I have a problem in my backyard-it seems the rabbits in our area like to eat our flowers and so I am wondering if anyone has any idea on how to put something near the flowers so the rabbits will avoid eating them or advice on how to capture(or kill) the varmints

Stop by you local garden center. There are several chemicals that can be put down around the plant area that rabbits do not like. Somewhere in the back of what little mind I have was an old wives tale that coffee grounds detours them. Can't prove it by me.

My favorites are the plants that you plant around the garden that detour rabbits.

Or, if you’re up to it and you want to get rid of them humanly, there are traps that, with the right bait, you can trap rabbits, skunks, raccoons and the occasional neighbor’s cat.

Skunks, raccoons and cats like chicken, while rabbits are vegetarians for the most part.

When you have you critter in the trap, take him/her for a one way trip to the country.

I am having a problem with squirrels. I am going to try a device that hooks to the garden hose and starts spraying water when it detects motion.

Good luck.

Get a dog... No seriously, a barking dog will scare the rabbit, peacock, raccoon - no scratch raccoon those fight back - feral cat, squirrel, opossum - nope scratch that one, they fall over pretending to be dead - pigeons, little children and other varmints that might plunder your garden.

Deer, birds, rabbits, squirrel, raccoons, opossum, feral cat, rats, mice, gophers, and the list goes on are not deterred when they are hungry. Dried blood, Irish Spring, mothballs, coyote urine, human hair, marigolds,and wing of bat and all of the folk lore remedies DO NOT work to keep hungry animals at bay - hunger will make any animal over ride its survival/fear mechanisms and they will dine at their pleasure upon your garden. Trust me, I hung CD's around the berries to keep the elephants and the birds from eating my berries, to give credit where credit is due I have not seen a single elephant eating my berries since hanging those CD's.

I have had success at reducing the number of lost black berries by keeping a nice bird bath and a big tray full of tasty seeds and bird food which they find a little more attractive than the berries. Or it may be the net I have over the berry bushes to keep the birds from flying in in the first place.

Fortunately for you rabbits don't fly, so you will not need to net your flowers, but you can build a physical barrier that rabbits can't fly over, go through or dig under. That means a 2 foot high wire fence buried a couple of inches at the bottom - preferably something that is akin to 1" chicken wire, but there are pretty fence materials you can use. Granted you may not want to run fencing around your whole yard, but you can run it around the flowers that you are wanting to protect.

Live traps: Baits: Apples, carrots, cabbage, and other fresh green vegetables are good baits. A good bait for garden traps is a cabbage leaf rolled tightly and held together by a toothpick. For best results, use baits that are similar to what your rabbits are feeding on.

And no do NOT take him or her on a trip to the country, us country folk will then have to deal with YOUR rabbit problem. No thanks, keep them. Take them further than that, like into the wilds where they can meet other rabbits and have rabbit marriages and have rabbit families with lots of little rabbits romping around in the Canadian forests far, far away from people.

Ever hear of hassenpfeffer? look here for yum-yum- good eatens.

I have heard (though have not tried) that soap shavings in bags will deter rabbits. Though if they are hungry enough, as David said, they are not to be deterred.
David, what do rabbit-weary folk do when they don't want a dog?

I think a cat would do pretty well too, for non-dog-lovers

We tried that. We don't like being pet owners. I am very much a dog lover, I just have no desire to own one.

quote:

Originally posted by Elexina:
I have heard (though have not tried) that soap shavings in bags will deter rabbits. Though if they are hungry enough, as David said, they are not to be deterred.
David, what do rabbit-weary folk do when they don't want a dog?

I wrote too much, so the option was hidden in my verbose post, a thousand pardons I beg.

The second and most reliable option would be a physical barrier:

For rabbits a fence two feet high (can be more if you want) with tiny holes, around 2 inches across, buried a couple of inches in the ground will prevent all but the most industrious rabbits from going through or under.

Again, the idea is not to fence off your whole yard, you will cage off the plants you want to save from being eaten. Although chicken wire works well, there are decorative fences out there. even the plastic "picket" kind which have their pickets spaced with about 2 inches of space between will work.

My favorite option is taking the plastic wood-like (brown, white and green colors)lattice (comes in sheets 4x8) cutting it length ways in half - you can make "rings" out of that joining the two ends together with wire ties. I have tied two lengths together for larger circles - The plastic is flexible enough to where long ellipsis can be made. The plastic does not break down and rot and can be used over and over again.

wow...thanks everyone for all of these ideas-I laughed at the CD idea-LOL and I like the idea of a rabbit fence -I'll try that idea and I will try other things if the rabbits crash the fence somehow -we used to own a cat...but now we have a bylaw(so I have been told) that cats are not allowed outside becasue of all the toxins in the weed and feed killer for lawns and yes eventually even those will be banned as well..well thanks again to each one of you who responded.

Marigolds will work too.

I knew if I looked long enough i would find the site I wanted to show.

Rid A Rabbit