Did You Know Baking Soda Can Keep Rabbits Out of Your Garden? (2024)

FAQs

Did You Know Baking Soda Can Keep Rabbits Out of Your Garden? ›

If your struggle is with rabbits destroying your garden, you may find advice for using baking soda to repel them, but there's no evidence that this will help.

“Sprinkle baking soda around your vegetable garden. Make a thin but visible ring of baking soda around each plant. This will dissuade rabbits from nibbling on them. You will need to apply this mixture regularly, especially after it rains,” wrote Jonathan Holmes in “How do you keep rabbits from eating herbs?”

To make this rabbit repellent, first fill a one gallon container, such as a milk jug, with water. Crush 5 garlic cloves and add then to the water. Add a teaspoon of crushed red peppers and 1 tablespoon of dish soap. Shake the container very well and then place in outdoors in the direct sun for two days.

Rabbits sniff around, a lot. So having things that rabbits don't like the smell of is a natural way to keep them away from your garden. Rabbits detest onions, so either planting onion bulbs or sprinkling cut onions around your beds is an easy way to repel them.

Alliums: Plants in the allium family, such as onions and garlic, have a strong odor that is unappealing to rabbits. Marigolds: Marigolds have a strong, pungent odor that is unpleasant to many pests, including rabbits. Mint: Mint is also a deterrent.

Baking soda is a salt and a high enough concentration of salt in soil will kill weeds, along with any other nearby plant, so it is not recommended for weed control.

Rabbit repellents work by releasing a scent that rabbits find repulsive (often dried blood or garlic oil) or making plants taste bad (hot pepper or dried blood sprays). Flavor-based repellents are usually more effective. Just be sure to follow instructions carefully, especially as it relates to reapplying after rain.

To make your rabbit repellent, mix equal parts water and citrus juice in a spray bottle and apply it to your plants.

Although rabbit-proof plants don't exist, there are some that rabbits don't like because of their strong scents such as basil, garlic, rhubarb, hot peppers, spicy basil, and mint. Some gardeners say that marigolds keep rabbits out of their gardens, while others say rabbits actually like the marigolds they planted.

Plants like nasturtiums, garlic, onion, rhubarb, oregano, basil and geranium are effective at keeping rabbits out of garden beds. Also, sprinkling cayenne pepper around the garden (or even on the plants) will send rabbits packing.

How do farmers keep rabbits away? ›

The most effective way of keeping out rabbits is chicken wire fencing. Install a fence that is 4 feet high and bury it at least 6 inches deep. Bend the top foot of the fence away from the garden like a security fence so they can't climb or jump over it.

Fencing and Netting

Rabbits usually enter gardens from adjoining common land, farms or woods. Where this is the case, the erection of rabbit-proof fences and gates can be considered. Ideally fences should be of 2.5cm (1-1¼in) wire mesh and 120-140cm (48-54in) in height.

You can sink wire into the ground around the edge of the garden or enclosure to stop the rabbits digging out, and fold a skirt of wire into the garden from the fence to act as a visual deterrent to digging (rabbits like to dig in corners or at edges).

Likewise buttercups, foxgloves, primrose, delphiniums/larkspur, columbine (aquilegia) hellebore, comfrey, poppy, periwinkle, monkshood, rhubarb, nightshade, ivy, privet, holly and yew are all reasonably common garden plants and all are toxic.

Rabbits don't like the smell of predators or death. That's why many gardeners swear by everything from sprinklings of human or animal hair (get it from your hairdresser or animal groomer) to human urine (easier to for men and gardeners with fences to apply).

Humans have been the rabbit's main enemy since it has been regarded as a major pest for the last 200 years. Rabbits cause a lot of damage to crops, gardens and the countryside.

Sprinkle dried sulfur, powdered red pepper, or hair

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.

Sodium bicarbonate is used as an emetic (to induce vomiting) because it produces tremendous amounts of gas when it hits the acidic stomach. Humans can vomit, but rabbits cannot. So there is the very real risk of stomach rupture if the bunny ingests enough to generate too much for the volume of the stomach.