…. we’ve been lulled into a rabbit takeover. During our severe 2014-15 winter, we watched from the window as one sad rabbit fought to survive atop 3′ of snow. We were pulling for the bunny as it nibbled birdseed and whatever else it could find. At neighborhood gatherings, we exchanged sightings and worried about our bunny. He/she survived. That was then and this is now.
Perhaps we were seeing more than one or it found another survivor. There had to be a male and female because we now are seeing the breeding potential of rabbits. Yards this summer look a little like the invasion of jackrabbits out west. At times, all I see from the window are baby bunnies… very tame babies, baby bunnies that graze from yard to yard, from garden to garden.
I’m playing catch-up learning about their diets. What do they like and what do they not like to eat? They hop around the yard nibbling grass and that’s perfectly fine but when I discover nibbles from my garden, I worry.
They don’t seem to totally eat anything…. except all my sunflowers and liriope. They sample from the smorgasbord. They seem bent on destroying plants, not eating them. I don’t want to harm the rabbits but trying to learn how to protect my garden. Coyotes, foxes and hawks are natural predator that may balance out the number but right now I need solutions.
Suggestion so far: red pepper spray (seems cruel), a dog or cat (too disgusting to visualize), barber shop hair, motion detector sprinklers, scare tape or balloons, pinwheels, but the only solution I see for me are plant cages. Drat. Wonder if there is a sure-fire solution other than harming these cute little cottontails….
