Rabbit Menace!

Hahahahahahaha nice one !!!

 

I have pet rabbits that run free outside and my own vegetable patch. I've learnt from experience (trying to stop my eldest from nibbling the celery!) that lavender plants work really well. They don't like the smell and that deters the rabbits. Planting some lavender bushes in key locations might be a good, animal friendly, eco friendly solution (and a little cheaper perhaps than rabbit proof fencing?).

 

I planted some straggly lavenders bushes from home at the plot (to use for cuttings) and the rabbits ate them right down to the ground.

 

rabbits & pigeons

I am troubled with wild rabbits they come through the hedges on each side.Last week they started to burrow into 3 rows of earthed up potatoes I couldn't think what to do, considered shooting but realized I would probably miss. Suddenly a bright idea, I had roof tiles left from when I built our house.Hard work but I barrowed 4 loads up hill & covered both sides, no trouble since.
Regarding pigeons I put iron stakes with nets round my pea beds, the nets are full of holes but the pigeons keep clear. If I knew how to put a photo on I could show what I mean.

ewal27

 

People have some success putting heron ornaments around there ponds to deter herons. Why not try the same thing with pigeons........a bird of prey ornament. It may work.

 

I've noticed quite a few Hawk-style self-launch kites used as bird scarers by farmers around here this year. They do seem quite effective and realistic!

Wait for the second image to display, its more representative than the first one with the football-scarf multi-coloured tail in the first picture in this link!

Bird Control By Scare'm | The Self Launching Bird Scaring Kite!

 

That's a clever idea Kristen. A couple of drawbacks would be lack of wind and overhead cables though.

 

There's one in the field next to us. It seems to "fly" pretty much all the time, so I think it must be very light. And it doesn't fly very high - 15' at most I would think - so probably could avoid cables.

Dunno if cost effective (or even just plain" effective"!) for a small patch though ...

 

I planted some lavender and some rosemary on my land, which is plagued by the furry demons. I even put mesh round them. The rabbits broke in and destroyed the lot, and I mean completely destroyed to the point where there was no evidence (apart from mesh enclosures that enclosed nothing at all).

Funnily enough, shortly after it happened, I found 3 or 4 unusually placed dead rabbits that had been run over just outside my main gate. I say unusual purely because rabbits rarely become road kill at that point.

Now here's the thing. Rosemary is known to invigorate. It is a stimulant when ingested. Lavender on the other hand is calming. My dad and I had a bit of a joke about some pumped up rabbits hyper off the rosemary, but at the same time mellow and fearless off the lavender, playing chicken at the main road.

 

Or a Cat !

 

At £84 inc. Vat you would have to grow a lot of vegetables to be cost effective.

 

Indeed. I'm in the Rabbit Fencing camp .... highly effective, and probably more cost effectively that alternatives and/or losing your crop :(