Gardening Rabbit Deterrents

Rabbits are adorable – unless they're wreaking havoc with your gardening, in which case you'll find yourself searching for the most effective rabbit deterrents available. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to discourage these whiskered pests from destroying your landscaping.

Rabbits can be quite bold when it comes to foraging in your yard for goodies – they'll even come onto your deck or patio to attack container plants! The classic method of defending your greens is to attack the rabbits' sense of smell. Gather together small collections of human, dog or cat hair and place the hair in small cloth bags. If you scatter these among your flower and vegetable beds, the bunnies will get a whiff and choose to do their munching elsewhere.

There are also a number of odiferous plants that work as gardening rabbit deterrents. Garlic and onions are anathema to rabbits, but you'll have the pleasure of home-grown produce as an added bonus. Aromatic plants like lavender and catnip will discourage rabbits, as will marigolds.

Some gardeners swear by bacon grease as a rabbit deterrent, and say that pouring it around the perimeter of your garden will keep them from entering the no-rabbit zone.

Ferret droppings are another tried-and-true rabbit deterrent, and it works for moles, too. Ferrets are closely related to badgers – small animals will instinctively avoid tangling with badgers and run for the hills if they think any are around. If you're not interested in getting a ferret for a pet, you can ask a friendly ferret owner or your local pet store to save some for you and then sprinkle the droppings around your plants. If you have a strong stomach, you can pour the ferret droppings into a bucket and mix them with water to make a paste to smear around the borders of your garden.

Another popular solution is to fill several gallon-size glass bottles with water and set them around the garden. Rabbits will be startled by the sunlight glinting off the glass and run away – a far less smelling gardening project than spreading animal droppings, but still an effective rabbit deterrent.