Keeping Pests Out of the Kitchen: A Pest Control Blog

Posted on: 31 July 2015

If you live in a semi-rural area, you may have problems with wild rabbits invading your garden and nibbling on your veggies and plants. Cute they may be, but they're also a non-native pest that can wreak havoc on your carefully-tended plot. If you have a serious rabbit infestation problem, your local pest controller will deal with it for you. However, a few unwanted visitors can be sent packing by using a combination of the following ideas—with no traps or poisons.

Cages and windmills

Placing chicken-wire cages over your veggies is a very effective way of keeping the rabbits out. Most good garden centres or DIY stores stock them in areas where rabbits are a problem for gardeners, and you can reuse them every year. As a first line of defence, position kids' windmills around the edge of the cages. The movement and sound of the bright foil sails can frighten off any bunnies that might contemplate a tunnelling raid.

Human hair

Rabbits are prey animals and the scent of a 'predator' is usually enough to scare them off. Ask your local hairdresser for a bag of sweepings from the salon floor. Scatter the hair around your plants or veg, and the rabbits will quickly decide to find a meal elsewhere.

Chilli spray

Rabbits hate the hot, bitter flavour of chillies. Take half a dozen of the hottest chilli peppers you can find and pop them in a blender with two cups of hot water. Put the resultant fire-water to the side for a day to steep. Strain the liquid through a muslin cloth, and then add it to a litre of water.

Decant the finished liquid into a spray bottle and liberally dose your vulnerable plants. Repeat the process every couple of weeks or following heavy rain. Although this can be a bit labour-intensive if you have a large garden, it's an extremely effective rabbit deterrent.

Ivory soap

Ivory soap can be bought cheaply online and is extremely effective at keeping rabbits away from your plants. Cut a bar up into small pieces and either sprinkle it around the plants, or place it on old yoghurt pot lids if you don't want the soap to get into your soil.

Moth balls

The strong, pungent smell of moth balls works as a very effective rabbit deterrent. Simply sprinkle a handful around your plants, and the bunnies will soon hop off in search of a fresher-smelling foraging patch.

All these methods are great at keep wild rabbits out of your garden without resorting to traps and poisons. However, if things get out of hand and you're faced with an infestation, give your local pest control company a call for advice on how to permanently banish the bunnies.