Rabbits!

Camba have you smelled fox scat! Yuk!

oh luckygirl
that post with the snakes and gators and such was for the ones claiming that if you dont like nature you should move.
i forgot to note that all of these took place in a small city of about 50k people.
the gator mommy one was a suburb of miami.
nature doesnt always stay put.
there are coyotes in detroit and nyc.and every city in the american southwest.
obviously these are a displacement situation too much city not enough country.
our little area(i think you would call them an estate.a large group of houses)is a bird preserve.
everything from tiny songbirds to swallow-tail and red shoullder hawks.huge owls.seabirds and cranes too
for this reason we dont ever see bunnys.
up the road at my da's there are bunnys.
nature is just trying to find her way to fit in wherever she can.
that being said i am the one who told you about the mothballs and hope they work.they wont harm the bunnys just irritate their tiny sensitive noses.

first bunny i ever saw was sitting next to a very old cabbage rose and plucking the petals off one by one.
like plucking grapes.thats when gm clara taught me about the moth balls.

OK, OK - I will settle for the rabbits!

when you live in a place that;as dh used to say"everything here pricks stings or bites"you have to draw the line somewhere.
crazy but dm had an alligator in her back lot.it was fenced off but when mum gator had babies and the canal was dredged she scooped up the babies into a washtub until the dredging was done.mumgator never bothered mumhuman????dm is a highly educated city girl...who knew.???

because of feral cats mine have had to be inside cats.a couple years ago a small woodrat got in,they watched it.and watched it.i finally was able to throw a bucket over it and get it outside to a foresty area a couple blocks away.
ndn had a fox living under her decking.squirrel population dropped fast.
have had to kill cotton mouth viper in other ndn back lot she was trying to find a place to have her live young.the sweet lady who wouldnt allow husband to kill ants.had to be shown(thank god for internet) that this creature under the flower pot would camp out at her bird feeders,cat dishes and possiblly hurt her as well before ahe would let her dh and i take care of it..
when these ndn would go on vacation the dh would give me some cash and ask if i would treat the shed for ants(yes even the ants bite here)while they were gone

had an outdoor manx cat , he was a snake killer and it always worried me.saw him do it more than once amazing to see,soo fast

I used a chilli "soup" to try an deter the rabbits and it would work for a couple of days and then they were back again.

We've had something digging up the tulips in our garden this year, for the first time since they were planted 8 years or so ago. The most affected part is in an area of the garden that I've recently cleared of ground cover.
I think (hope?) it is probably squirrels, though I've seen a rat in a neighbouring garden. Apparently a local jobbing gardener suggests sprinkling dried chilli flakes around the bulbs when planting - has anybody tried doing this?

Anya - great idea!

I think I would rather have the rabbits!

We have had tons of rabbits eating everything in the garden until this year, when we discovered what looks like a fox or badgers den under the compost heap! I have seen a fox in the garden twice but not glimpsed a badger. Happy to have one fox and a keep my vegs and flowers!

When cornered, throw a towel over it.They think they are safe and stand still, then you can scoop it up and throw it outside.

CandyKat put a comfy chair in the kitchen and sit there with a baseball bat!
Our cats used to do this all the time, nobody who doesn't have cats realises that with a cat in the house, mice come too!

It's alive and looked unharmed

Why not get a dog - I know how you love 'man's best friend'

I currently have a large mouse/small rat in my kitchen. Cat brought it in but has now lost interest and gone out. I don't know where it is and want it gone, any ideas anyone?

Fine quizqueen - I will direct all the fleas, nits, rats, pathological microbes etc your way! - you are welcome to them! Nature is not always good for humans! Nature is a non-stop battle between species - it is not all cute!

But I take your point about the rabbits - I wish them no harm; I just want to send them in another direction so they don't eat my roses (which are also part of nature!).

cute

This is the only one in our garden,and does no harm at all.

See of Chewbacca will lend you her ferret (she's usually to be found the the Argy-Bargy Cafe) , then you can have rabbit pie, rabbit stew, rabbit curry....

If you dislike nature, then move to a high rise flat. If you choose to live near open spaces then embrace it because that is where you want to live. The world doesn't just belong to people you know!!!!

Old tea bags soaked in Olbas oil seem to work.

Years ago, I read in the Scottish Sunday Express that a farmer in the Edinburgh area got so tired of deer eating his crops that he bought a load of lion muck from Edinburgh Zoo and spread it all the way round the edges of his field.
Hey presto! No deer, whether it was instinct or racial memory at work no-one knows.
Myself I modified the idea and put used cat litter into a carrier back which I placed om a small ornamental balcony that was the favourite haunt of pigeons - they left immediately and after a couple of days you shouldn't need to go on putting the used litter "out to air".
Perhaps manuring the rose bed with cat or dog's dirt keeps rabbits away?

Thanks all for directions to mothballs in B&Q etc. (That's where I miss no longer having a handy corner hardware shop.)

was off cutting down a tree ,its roots clogging water lines.flooded loo.just wash water thankfully
did some mothball therapy around my container garden,we have giant black grasshoppers that will and did take down a ten year old 5 ft jade plant.i cried.
my crows help alot but it was dry for 7 months and had a bumper crop of hoppers and fleas.
i live in a usually wet part of the states and the mothballs breakdown and leach into the dirt underneath lasts for awhile even with the rain.did it in a rock garden feral cats were using for a litterbox.just put the sachets{i like that} under the little statues.little furry buggers bolted fast.
first time took awhile to find the mothballs,i found them in the laundry supplies.

hope it works for you lucky girl.i cant grow roses but gran was a master.i can grow amyrillis's tho have 2 gorgeous types right now.working on potted tulips.kind of hot here for them,i have to freeze the bulbs before i pot them.i do love tulips. good weekend to all.

BandQ did have moth balls and I have excavated the burrow and poked 4 or 5 sachets of balls down there then filled it in again. It is a good two feet from any plants and at the lower end of a sloping bed, so I am hoping none of the noxious stuff will get near the plants. Fingers crossed.

We had a prolific rabbit hunter (cat) living here10 years ago. I would be working or sitting in the garden and hear a loud plop many times a day as it returned with yet another rabbit. There would then be loud crunching noises as it started to devour its prey. Trouble is, it would never finish one before going off to catch another. Every evening, I was having to clear my garden of the remains, and if i missed any the smell was horrendous by the next day. (Sorry if I am putting anyone off their dinner!) That said, the rabbit population was so bad at that time that it didn't make any noticeable difference to their numbers.

The same cat wasn't content with rabbits, and attacked me more than once when I was quietly working away in the garden - i would be rooting out weeds then suddenly the cat would fly through the air out of nowhere and sink its teeth in my hand. I think it's safe to say that the dislike was mutual! Fortunately, my neighbours's cat, although just as prolific a hunter, is a much more pleasant creature!

When we had a place in Scotland there were hundreds of rabbits in the back field, which affected everyone.
The locals used to come with their guns and try to shoot them.
According to this article: "the gestation period for rabbits is 28-31 days, a rabbit can be impregnated within hours of giving birth, litters contain 1-14 babies, and rabbits are fertile from about six months of age."
we don't seem to get them here, but have other pests eg deer eat the rosebuds and young leaves off trees.