5/29/2023 0 Comments Dog ate 1 hop pelletYoung trees and saplings are more vulnerable so focus on protecting them. These barriers should be as high as usual snow depth plus eighteen inches. Cylinders of hardware cloth (stand on their own) or poultry wire (need staking) can work as well. These also serve as mini-greenhouses in spring when nights are still cool.Other protection may need to be provided once the jugs come off.īarriers for trees: Commercial tree wrap or plastic tree guards can keep rabbits from nibbling bark. New plantings can be protected individually under plastic jugs that have the bottom cut out. Some years, you won't need the panels at all, given the ups and downs of rabbit populations. Movable fence panels can protect the garden right after the first planting, when damage is likely to be most severe, and go in the shed the rest of the year. Stake the bottom securely to the ground to prevent rabbits from pushing underneath it. Two-foot high chicken wire supported by posts every six to eight feet is strong enough to keep rabbits out. And you may see the rabbits themselves-a dead giveaway to their presence-most often near dawn and dusk.īarriers for flowers and vegetables: A well-constructed fence is the most effective way to protect plants. You may see the easily recognizable tracks of rabbits in soft soil or snow. Twigs browsed by rabbits look neatly clipped but plants browsed by deer appear ragged and torn. Deer eat many of the same things rabbits do and are also common around yards. What to do about rabbits eating plantsįirst things first: Make sure a rabbit is the culprit. Interestingly, rabbits will excrete, eat and re-digest their own droppings to obtain the maximum amount of nutrients. If you are lucky enough to witness a kit nursing (from a respectful distance), they kick their little legs with joy. Gardeners may find that rabbits nibble their flower and vegetable plants in spring and summer and the bark of fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs in the fall and winter.īaby rabbits (kits) will nurse (drink their mother’s milk) during the first few weeks of life and then transition to greens. (Domestic rabbits live about five to 10 years.) What do wild rabbits eat?Īdult wild rabbits eat clover, grass and other plants, as well as twigs and even bark, if other food sources are scarce. Their valuable place in the food web (as well as human threats such as habitat loss, trapping and cars) means they often don’t live long, but most live somewhere between one and nine years. How long do wild rabbits live?Īs critical members of our ecosystem, rabbits form underground burrows that strengthen our soil health and they serve as a food source for many larger predators. Sometimes, by doing nothing and letting nature take its own course, the homeowner sees the same result as they might from trying to "control" rabbits. Given the many predators who make meals of rabbits, their populations can rise and fall dramatically over the course of a year. Here today, gone tomorrow is one way to describe rabbits in suburbia. Yards, parks, playgrounds and office parks, often with small natural buffers in between, have lots of edges between small areas of different habitats that rabbits love. This love of edges means they love our suburbs. In fact, they are rarely found in dense forests or open grassland. Cottontails like to live at the edges of open areas. There are several species of wild rabbits-most are Eastern cottontail rabbits-who live across most of North America. Why are there so many rabbits in my neighborhood?
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