Rabbits may be cute, but you definitely don’t want them in your garden.
These fast reproducers can quickly destroy your plants and wreck your landscaping.
Luckily, you don’t have to let them take over.
In this blog, we’ll share both lethal and humane methods to stop rabbits from eating your plants and help you protect your yard from wild, cottontail, European rabbits, and more!
Key Takeaways
- To get rid of rabbits, you can use repellents like dried blood meal or sulfur, install fencing, apply homemade deterrents, set up live traps, and maintain your yard to prevent re-infestation.
- Rabbits are common pests in North America. They live throughout the country, have a ravenous appetite for fresh vegetation, and can be very difficult to eliminate.
- Maintaining your yard, mowing grass, and filling burrows and holes are great ways to prevent rabbit re-infestation.
- Severe rabbit infestations may require the help of a professional wildlife removal company, which will make exclusion, trapping, and removal recommendations tailored to your property.
Safety Considerations
- Apply repellents and baits in areas away from children and pets.
- If using products that contain chemicals, read the product labels carefully to ensure safe application.
- If using live traps, handle any captured rabbits with care. Wear heavy gloves and protective clothing to avoid contact with diseases. Be aware of local laws regarding the relocation or euthanization of trapped animals.
7 Effective Ways to Get Rid of Rabbits
Natural & Humane Methods
1. Repellents
Rabbits have a strong sense of smell, and they use it to guide them to safe, tasty food sources.
Fortunately, you can use that sense of smell in your favor if you’re trying to repel rabbits.
To keep these pests from returning, try using various homemade deterrents.
Here are our top suggestions:
- Use repellents like dried blood meal or sulfur to keep bunnies from entering your garden in the first place. Sprinkle your repellent of choice in the parts of your yard that you want rabbits to stay out of. Make sure to re-apply the repellent after every heavy rain or anytime you water your lawn or garden. If you have dogs, be wary of using this method since they may be attracted to the blood meal.
- Sprinkle cayenne pepper around the garden or near plants that rabbits love to eat.
- Use a small, mesh bag to contain shavings of strong-smelling bar soap, and place it in high-traffic rabbit areas.
- Grind together three hot peppers, three large onions, and a whole bunch of garlic. Add water to cover, let the mixture sit overnight, strain it, and add water to make a gallon of homemade rabbit deterrent. Spray it anywhere you’ve noticed rabbit activity.
- Apply a light coating of animal lard to the stalks and base area of new seeding replacements to repel rabbits.
We recommend Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit Repellent Concentrate if you’re looking for a more powerful repellent.
This long-lasting, rain-resistant repellent is safe for use on landscaping, ornamental gardens, flowers, trees, vines, and shrubs and is harmless to plants and animals when used as directed.
Remember that repellents are only effective if you use them repeatedly and frequently since they can wear off quickly.
Pros: Easy, effective, affordable, non-toxic, gets rid of rabbits without killing them or harming dogs and other pets
Cons: These DIY deterrents require re-application after every heavy watering or rain (except for fencing of course)
2. Fencing
Use repellents and exclusion methods together to keep rabbits out of your garden for maximum effectiveness.
While fencing is time-consuming to install, it is the best way to control rabbits.
To prevent their entry, install chicken wire fencing or wire mesh around your lawn, garden, flower beds, and other areas you’d like to protect.
To ensure the fencing is rabbit-proof, we recommend using 15” tall poultry or bird netting (this product is a great option), although anything taller than 12” will work well.
To prevent bunnies from digging under the fence, bury it at least 6” underground.
The top of the fence should be bent away from the garden bed, so rabbits can’t jump over it. You can protect bulbs with a dome or cage of chicken wire.
Pros: Affordable and humane and can keep other pests out of your garden.
Cons: Can be difficult to install and requires routine repairs and maintenance.
3. Mesh hardware cloth
Create a second line of protection to keep rabbits away from your plants by using cylinders of ¼ inch-mesh hardware cloth to protect young fruit and ornamental trees.
For maximum protection, ensure the cylinders extend higher up the trees than a rabbit can reach while standing on its hind legs.
The cylinders should be at least 1-2” off the tree trunk.
You can also use individual tin calls to create “collars” around plants so that they can grow to a less vulnerable size.
Pros: Easy, effective, inexpensive, nontoxic
Cons: Requires a good deal of manual work to install these barrier methods
4. Chicken Wire
Use chicken wire to protect your plants and keep rabbits out of your garden.
Simply wrap the wire around the garden. To prevent rabbits from burrowing underneath, dig the wire several inches into the ground.
You can also use netting to drape over your plants and prevent rabbits from nibbling on vulnerable growth.
Pros: Effective at preventing predation
Cons: Can be unsightly
5. Live traps
While rabbits are intelligent animals that are very difficult to lure into traps, you can do it.
To use live trapping as an effective rabbit control method, you must invest time and patience into determining the rabbits’ daily habits and routes of travel.
Well-placed live traps can catch and contain rabbits without harming them.
Commonly used by rabbit control companies, live traps are a great way to quickly reduce rabbit populations without using lethal methods.
We recommend Wilco’s Collapsible Live Trap, which is safe for rabbits, humane, and easy to set.
To make your live traps extra-effective, we recommend adding Wilco Rabbit Lure and placing the traps in the rabbit’s normal path of travel.
This bait is a non-toxic paste that’s made from food-grade ingredients. While it attracts rabbits to the trap, it won’t harm them if they ingest it.
NOTE: If you’re going to use live traps, you must treat the animals ethically.
- All traps should be checked at least once a day.
- Any trapped animals should be handled with care.
- You should wear heavy gloves and protective clothing to avoid contact with diseases transmitted through the animal’s feces and urine.
If you choose to live-trap animals, you’ll need to understand your area’s relevant trapping rules and regulations, as it is generally illegal to relocate live-trapped animals.
If you choose to euthanize the animals, you must only use humane methods. Drowning is not an acceptable option.
While shooting can be an effective solution, it’s illegal in most municipalities and can be dangerous. DO NOT try to shoot rabbits unless you’re a skilled marksman capable of doing so safely and responsibly.
Pros: Effective, fast-acting, humane
Cons: Can be time-consuming to set up and manage, poses a risk of disease
Lethal Methods
6. Poison
If you want to kill rabbits, poison is one of the fastest methods.
There are many store-bought rabbit positions designed to kill rabbits fast.
There are also jackrabbit baits on the market, but they’re highly restricted and come with many risks.
We advise caution with all poisons since these poisons contain dangerous toxins and are likely not safe for kids, pets, or non-target species.
Pros: Effective, fast-acting.
Cons: These products are highly toxic and inhumane and are not approved for use around kids, pets, or food.
7. Lethal traps
While there are a variety of non-lethal traps available to help you get rid of rabbits, some people prefer lethal traps.
Lethal traps kill rabbits quickly and can be used to cut down large rabbit populations.
Pros: Non-toxic, safer than poisons
Cons: Requires re-baiting and re-setting of traps, and disposing of dead rabbits, inhumane. Live trapping is also dangerous: live trapping can pose a risk of injury for the trapper and animals and may distress rabbits.
How Pest Control Professionals Can Help
Interested in hiring a wildlife removal company to get rid of your rabbits? Here’s what you can expect:
Step 1: Inspection
When you hire a wildlife removal company, most teams will start with an inspection of your property.
During this inspection, they’ll arrive at your property, identify rabbit burrows, and assess current rabbit damage.
Next, they’ll make treatment recommendations. During this inspection, they’ll evaluate your property, identify the source and severity of the infestation, and discuss treatment options.
Step 2: Treatment
Next, the wildlife removal company will deliver the treatment method they’ve deemed most appropriate for your property.
Since rabbits reproduce rapidly, getting rid of them usually requires multiple treatments rather than a single appointment.
Step 3: Follow-up
Once the pest control experts have completed their initial phase of treatments, they may move on to exclusion recommendations designed to keep rabbits from returning to your property.
Tips to Keep Rabbits Away
Keep bunnies off your property with these simple prevention tips:
- Plant onions, garlic, marigold, and other strong-smelling plants around the border of your garden to deter rabbits. While there are no truly “rabbit-proof” plants, rabbits tend to stay away from strongly-scented herbs and plants like oregano, basil, and rhubarb.
- Keep your yard as tidy as possible. Habitat modification is one of the best ways to get rid of bunnies. Remove hiding spaces by trimming back landscaping, raking up piles of brushes and leaves, and keeping your lawn mowed to limit shelter.
- Let your domestic pets outside often. Rabbits see pets as predators and will be hesitant to visit a yard with pets.
- Use scare tactics to startle rabbits. Motion-activated lights, shiny aluminum pie tins, old mirrors, and motion-activated scare devices can all help keep rabbits out of your garden without hurting them.
- Use store-bought ultrasonic spikes. These spikes emit a noise that’s too high-pitch for people to hear, but that creates an intolerable racket for rabbits.
Need Additional Help? Turn to Pest Dude!
Rabbits can be tough pests to eliminate. If your DIY options have failed or you want expert help, it may be time to find a reputable, local wildlife removal company in your area.
Fortunately, we have a broad network of reputable partners in your area that can help you get rid of rabbits quickly and humanely.
Get a Free Quote
Give us a call today to receive your free, no-obligation pest control quote.
Rabbit Control FAQs
For such a small animal, rabbits can do a surprising amount of damage to lawns and gardens.
Here’s a breakdown of the havoc rabbits can cause:
- Damage to landscaping and gardens. Rabbits are voracious eaters with razor-sharp teeth. They’re known for drawing (and, in some cases, killing) fruits, flowers, young trees, and other plants. They can strip the bark off young trees and clip their buds, creating clean-cut damage at ground level. Rabbits also eat plants at all stages of growth – consuming sprouts, stems, leaves, and buds, as well as mature fruits and vegetables. In just days, rabbits can devastate your garden.
- Damage to lawns. Like other burrowing rodents, rabbits dig holes to keep themselves and their babies safe. As they dig, they displace soil and create cavernous openings. They also trample grass as they feed, creating brown spots and dead grass. In time, rabbits can turn a well-manicured lawn into an unsightly mess.
- Possible disease transmission. Rabbits can carry diseases like Tularemia. Also known as “Rabbit fever,” Tularemia is most commonly associated with Cottontail rabbits and can be spread to humans via infected ticks or fleas. Rabbits can also be hosts for ticks with Lyme disease.
Although bunnies cause damage all year long, they’re especially active in the early spring, when they feed on tender green buds of plants and grass.
During the winter, they’ll pop out of their underground burrows to eat the bark of trees and shrubs, sometimes girdling the trees or preventing the emergence of foliage in the spring.
Are rabbits suddenly taking over your yard? Here’s why:
1. Food
Rabbits are voracious eaters, and strict herbivores. They eat a variety of vegetation, including fruit, buds, flowers, seeds, bark, and twigs.
Cottontail bunnies may also eat crops like peas, beans, and lettuce. In the winter, rabbits will eat bark, twigs, and shrubs, eventually re-ingesting their own fecal pellets to boost their vitamin and mineral intake.
Rabbits love yards with unfenced gardens or other easily available food sources.
2. Water
Rabbits drink about 4-8 ounces of water each day. They get much of this water from their food, since vegetation has a high moisture content.
The rest of their daily intake comes from chemical reactions in the rabbit’s body and through sources of drinking water, such as puddles, irrigation lines, and ponds.
3. Shelter
Since rabbits are prey animals, they need habitats that provide plenty of protection, and they’ll seek out areas with tall grass to hide in or fences and trees that provide shelter.
Once rabbits show up, they’ll breed rapidly. Females have a 30-day gestation period and can have several litters of 4-8 young each. Baby rabbits are fully mature in a matter of weeks, so rabbit populations can quickly get out of hand.
While rabbits don’t bite people, they can carry diseases that can pass to humans and domestic pets via infected ticks and lice.
To most people, wild and domestic rabbits look virtually identical. If there’s a rabbit in your yard, though, it’s likely wild. In California, seven species of rabbits live in the wild, but the most common are the black-tailed hare, the desert cottontail, and the brush rabbit.
Rabbits hate strong smells. To get rid of them, try dried sulfur. Sprinkling it on or around your plants is a great way to keep them away. You can also plant strong-smelling plants like onions or garlic to keep them out of your garden.
what is the name of the poison for the rabbits and where can I get it?
Here at The Pest dude, we don’t recommend poisoning rabbits because, nationally, this is a very unpopular method for rabbit control.
When something is highly unpopular, it is usually because it comes with tremendous risk downside or issues with efficacy.
Instead of poison, we recommend shooting, trapping, and exclusion fencing.
If you could give us a little bit more information about the lay of the land, which rabbit species you’re dealing with, and what damage they are causing, we can give you a more helpful answer.
We may be wrong, and a toxic it might be the best solution, but I would love to know more before recommending something with as many downsides as poison bait for an animal like a rabbit.
following… I am dealing with the same issue. have tried multiple repellents, included urine. the rabbits are eating bushes. They are wreaking the garden. This is a suburban area. Once had forest around, but have been taken down to build houses. Any help would be appreciated.
Hey Mark, rabbits can be very challenging because they are very hungry and thirsty so they devour the landscaping.
It’s difficult to trap them, and once you’ve caught them you have to euthanize them which many people are not comfortable doing.
I recommend temporary fencing, using products commonly available at home stores in the garden section to make it much more inconvenient for the rabbits to enter your yard. Rings of fencing around shrubs may not be your idea of beauty, but it can be effective at blocking rabbits.
Another option is to use bamboo stakes, or other low-cost stakes, and run chicken wire around the perimeter of the garden or plants that you want to protect.
This is not elegant, but it is a good alternative to trapping and killing the rabbits.
I don’t have a lot of confidence in repellent, to be honest. It can work sometimes but I recommend trying repellent daily if you can afford it.
Again with rabbits, fencing and blocking them from entry is an option to killing them via trapping or shooting.
Thanks… They are living in the yard. Lot’s of holes and living under the deck. Thanks
It is important to screen off the decks where possible to keep them from hiding under there. And it is possible to harass them daily from their holes in the yard if you have the capability. You can harass them with a garden hose possibly. Or a store-bought repellent product on the regular.
No animal wants to keep returning to a home that’s inundated with odors.
In your case, repellents may be effective to run them off from their burrows in your yard if you can identify the burrows.
Additionally low fencing made of chicken wire could be a good deterrent as well.
Repellent dissipates so quickly. It’s effective lifespan is not very long. And hungry/thirsty rabbits are prone to put up with a little funky smells if they are so motivated to get the nourishment they’re seeking from your landscaping.
They need lots of hiding places, so if it’s possible to prune your shrubbery in a way that doesn’t allow them easy hiding underneath, that’s an option worth considering.