Most of us never saw ourselves as allies of Elmer Fudd or Mr. McGregor. Rabbits and adorable bunnies populated our children’s storybooks. A little velveteen number could bring a tear to the parental eye even on the 100th reading. For families who celebrate Easter, a simple equation described all things rabbit: Bunny = candy.
That was then. This is now.
If you live in a neighborhood along the Front Range, the words cute and rabbit no longer enjoy proximity in your sentences. An aphorism your mother liked to use more likely comes to mind: Familiarity breeds contempt.
Emphasis on breeds.
“We have a lot of them right now,” says Michael Morris, hard goods manager at the Flower Bin in Longmont. He’s speaking of both rabbits and customers looking for ways to repel them.
“There are some repellents you can buy that work pretty well,” Morris says. “None of them harm the animal. They affect its nasal passages. They’re naturally based — blood meal, putrefied eggs, some pretty cool things like that.”
He says the products come in the form of both spray and granules. Certain types also discourage deer.
Harriett McMillan, horticulture specialist at Echter’s Nursery & Garden Center, in Arvada, says the nursery gets a lot of customers looking for a remedy for the rabbit invasion.
“(Rabbits are) especially in the western suburbs, even down in Littleton,” she says. “All over the city, there are lots of rabbits.”
McMillan also recommends repellents as a tool.
“One of the very popular ones is based on fox-urine granules,” she says. “The predator scent of a fox can be a deterrent. (Others are) herbal oils, clove oil, blood meal, garlic. Once they taste it, they’re not going to go back.”
Plants that rabbits hate
Another strategy is to plant perennials and some annuals, such as Zinnias, that rabbits don’t like. As you may have gathered from the discussion on repellents, rabbits have sensitive noses. Plants with a strong scent, especially those that have an earthy, herbaceous aroma often don’t pass the rabbit smell test.
Echter’s has available several handouts that describe strategies for dealing with rabbits and other pests. For those choosing plants for the garden, one tip is doing plant-by-plant tryouts — planting one of a plant variety and checking it the next couple of mornings. If it hasn’t been unearthed and eaten, it’s probably safe to plant more of the same.
Another handout runs down plants that rabbits love and hate.
Some of the plants it calls “salad-bar specials for rabbits.” Those include tulips, pansies, irises, petunias and fennel. Plants that rabbits dislike include lavender, penstemon, artemesia, hyssop, sages, shasta daisy, gaillardia, common butterfly bush, blue mist spirea and columbine.
“A lot of them I find are going to have gray, fuzzy foliage,” McMillan says.
An Echter’s handout also lists plants that deer tend to avoid. Trees include Douglas fir, Colorado blue spruce, lodgepole pine, piñon pine and common hackberry. Other plants include lavender, echinops, delphinium, goldenrod, chokecherry, chocolate flower and Apache plume.
“The caveat on all that,” McMillan says, “is that if deer are hungry, they’re going to eat.”
Another thing to watch, if you live in a populated area, is that some plants are unattractive to deer and rabbits, because they’re poisonous. Children may not be able to figure this out in the way wildlife does.
If you’re especially interested in xeric plants that discourage deer and rabbits, the High Country Gardens catalog — highcountrygardens.com — is a good source.
Fences make good neighbors
When these strategies fail, the Flower Bin’s Morris says fencing is the best way to keep critters out.
“It has to be several feet to keep out a rabbit,” he says. “It has to be pretty sturdy. They can knock it down. People typically use chicken wire or fencing like that.”
And don’t neglect the bottom of the fence.
Remember, Peter Rabbit squeezed under the garden gate.
