How to Get Rid of Rabbits
How to Get Rid of Rabbits in the Garden - Rabbits are only a nuisance animal when they appear in large numbers or when they invade our vegetable gardens and homes. Keeping rabbits out of a garden is not too difficult of a task. These shy animals will not break through fences or create extensive burrows to get at the plants. Rabbits are very content to graze on regular grasses, so if the vegetable garden is inaccessible they will not spend a lot of time figuring out how to get inside. A sturdy fence extending a few inches into the soil will be a good rabbit barrier. If fencing in your garden isn’t practical, you can try to trap the repeat offender in a cage trap. There are some home remedies out there to deter rabbits but most of these methods—like dog hair, human hair and coyote urine—are ineffective. Trapping a rabbit in a live trap is easy, especially since few other animals will enter the trap after rabbit bait. You rarely have to worry about catching the neighbor’s cat when you’re trying to trap a rabbit.
How to Get Rid of Rabbits in the Yard
The nature of rabbits is that they eat, sleep, and make baby rabbits. The breeding rate of these animals is phenomenal and can result in hundreds of rabbits over the course of a single year. If rabbits decide to build their warren somewhere near your yard, you may find your grass looking less than satisfactory. Rabbits eat constantly and they can easily deplete a lawn of certain types of grass. To get rid of rabbits in the yard, trapping and removal is the best option, though a large dog and a cat can do a fairly good job of policing the area for you. The dilemma is not that there are rabbits in the yard—the dog can manage that issue—the dilemma is that a rabbit community is nearby. As long as the rabbits are living by your home, you will continue to have issues. To trap and remove rabbits, you can use a live trap or a lethal trap, though lethal trapping requires special permits in certain areas of the country. Regardless of how you trap your rabbit using dandelions as bait is highly successful.
How to Get Rid of Rabbits Under the Shed
The complex network of tunnels created by rabbits is called a warren. These warrens are often dug into the sides of a hill or under the base of a large tree. The area beneath a shed offers an excellent space to create a tunnel system. The shed bottom will provide structure for the roof and will keep the soil beneath it dry. If you have rabbits under your shed, the only way to get rid of them is to trap and remove them. Rabbits can be caught in cage traps, but if you are dealing with a large population of rabbits, lethal trapping may be a more effective means. Rabbits procreate too quickly to waste time trapping them one by one if you’re dealing with a large community. If the situation is this advanced bringing in a professional is recommended. Not only will you need to trap multiple rabbits as fast as you can, you will also need to relocate them to an area with sufficient protection and food. Trapping and removing a warren full of rabbits is a full time job and not one that should be undertaken half-heartedly.
How to Get Rid of Rabbits in the Crawl Space Under a House
Homes with crawlspaces at ground level are often victims of rabbit infestations. Crawl spaces at the base of a home are often riddled with cracks and holes. This type of area is ideal for rabbits looking to start a burrow. Once inside the crawl space, the bunnies will have more bunnies and the population will soon move out into the yard where it will rain down grazing terror on the grasses and plants. To get rid of rabbits in the crawl space, the animals need to be trapped and relocated. This scenario does not involve a huge community of rabbits so lethal trapping is not necessary. Take a cage trap baited with dandelions, lettuce or carrots and place it near the burrow entrance. Make sure the trap is on level ground so it will not wobble when a bunny enters. You will have to inspect the area once you feel all the rabbits are gone and make sure no babies were left behind and no fresh rabbit signs are around. If everything looks okay, patch the hole.
Go back to the main Rabbit Removal page for more information about how to get rid of rabbit.
