Keep Rabbits Away From Your Lawn with These Nifty Tricks

Don’t be fooled by a rabbit’s cute, fluffy exterior. While they may be skittish prey animals, bunnies are eating machines that can lay waste to a lawn or garden in short order. I have a pet bunny that I love, but that doesn’t mean I want any in my yard or garden.

Thankfully, there are many humane tips and tricks that make your yard less desirable to bunnies (or keep them out altogether). Here to divulge their best-kept methods for keeping bunnies out of your yard are Osmar Castillero from Blades Landscaping and Amy Fedele from Pretty Purple Door.

What Do Rabbits Eat?

“Bunnies tend to favor tender, young plants and vegetables, as well as plants with soft foliage,” Fedele says. In the garden, this means lettuces, carrots, leafy greens, fruits and herbs. In lawns, they feast on grass, clover and dandelions, according to Castillero. Hardier plants are not off limits, as rabbits will also chew and eat twigs and bark from trees like apple, birch and poplar trees.

A rabbit’s highly active digestive system requires a near-constant supply of food. My bunny weighs less than five pounds and eats an enormous amount of hay and greens daily. For wild rabbits, a lawn or garden is the perfect spot to easily fulfill their feeding needs.

How To Prevent Rabbits in Your Yard

Try these preventative measures to make your yard less desirable to rabbits.

Regular yard maintenance

Keep weeds under control and leaves raked up to provide less cover and food for rabbits. Keep plants trimmed up to avoid excess food that rabbits will gravitate toward.

Mow your grass often

Rabbits feel safer in longer grass, so keep the lawn short. “Try not to let your grass get longer than five or six inches,” Castillero says. “Not only is it more difficult to mow, but it creates a safe place for bunnies to hide and burrow.”

Ways to Keep Rabbits Out of Your Yard

From physical barriers to unpleasant odors, these tricks keep rabbits out of your yard.

Plant onions or garlic

Good news if you’ve been thinking about growing some onions or garlic for the kitchen: both are a perfect way to deter bunnies from your yard. Try planting them along the border of your yard to act as a natural barrier. Fedele likes to plant garlic and onions as companion plantings next to more vulnerable plants. The smell can be enough to keep them away.

Sprinkle dried sulfur, powdered red pepper, or hair

Rabbits are also repulsed by sulfur and red pepper. Castillero has found some success getting rid of rabbits by sprinkling a bit of dried red pepper around lawns or shrubs.

You can also consider sprinkling some human hair as well. Hair looks similar to grass, so when rabbits feast on it, they find it to be a terrible-tasting grass. Knowing the “grass” is not what they want, they stop hopping over.

Build a fence

“The best thing you can do is install fencing, especially around your vegetable garden,” Fedele says. But any old fence will not do the trick.

A rabbit-proof fence should be made of metal wire mesh, as rabbits will chew right through vinyl or plastic. The openings in the mesh should be 1 inch or less, so a material like hardware cloth (a woven mesh material with 1/2-inch openings) is a good choice. “If the openings are too large the bunnies can still get through,” Fedele says.

To prevent rabbits from digging underneath the fence (which they will do), bury the fence at least 12 inches below the surface.

Spray rabbit repellent

Regular application of a bunny repellent can help keep rabbits from entering your yard. I’ve had good luck using repellent made of predator urine. “If the bunnies smell natural predators they are more likely to stay away from the area,” Fedele says. Other repellent products are sprays with a strong odor, like garlic.

Any repellent product will need to be reapplied every month or so, or after a hard rain.

Grow plants bunnies hate

Pungent plants like lavender, peppermint and marigolds are just some of the plants that bunnies will avoid. If there are enough of them in your yard or if you plant them all along the yard’s perimeter, they could prevent rabbits from setting foot in your yard.

FAQ’s

When are rabbits most active?

Fedele says rabbits are most active at dawn and dusk “because this coincides with their natural feeding patterns.” They do not hibernate, so they are active throughout the year.

How do you know if rabbits are getting into your garden?

A common sign is rabbit feces, which look like mounds of small, round pellets. Rabbits are constantly eating and pooping, so this is often an easy-to-spot sign of their presence.

Fedele points out that chewed plants, especially tender plant shoots, can be a tell-tale sign of bunny activity.

Castillero recommends looking for burrows (aka dug-up mounds of dirt) in the lawn, but also near fences or garden perimeters. Nesting materials like leaves and grass in your garden can indicate bunny activity.

About the Experts

Osmar Castillero is the owner of Blades Landscaping Services, a lawn care and maintenance company in Lowell, Massachusetts. He has over ten years experience in the industry.

Amy Fedele is a home gardening expert and founder of Pretty Purple Door offering online landscape design courses for DIY landscaping enthusiasts. She holds a diploma in Garden Design and Maintenance, and has been helping homeowners design landscapes since 2014.