Making peace with the rabbits

[JoeP450]

I have had many young seedlings killed this year by rabbits that eat them in half, essentially cutting the young plant up to a pencil diameter in half, then usually the plant will die while a small very tiny amount come back via new shoots. There seems to be no discrimination as mango, jackfruit, salak, kwaimuk, annonas, white sapote, achacha, papaya have all fallen victim. I realize that this maybe is an eccentric fix but it seems to be working so far. Basically measured out 33in of chicken wire and zip tied to a 12in angled pvc pipe to keep the rabbits away from the seedlings until they are thick enough to not temp the rabbits. This or get a pet falcon I guess 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

[JoeP450]

Salak with rabbit guard 🤷‍♂️

Joe

[spaugh]

Chicken wire works but at some point it becomes easier to fence a perimeter instead of doing individual trees.

[brian]

also rabbit repellent exists.  It is pretty cheap at costco, it seems to be effective for me, I noticed a huge reduction in eaten flower bulbs when I used it last year.

Fencing trees/yard may be more reliable, though, or could do both

[Triloba Tracker]

Yeah i use 2 foot-high chicken wire "rings" around my trees, even mature-ish ones. I don't have rabbit problems but rather possums and/or raccoons digging.

I've had some cases where they bash-in the chicken wire. One tree i found multiple times with the chicken wire halfway up the tree and the tree leaning over 45 degrees. Needless to say i had to reinforce some things.

I wish I had a wildlife camera so i could see what crazy animal is doing that - it doesn't make any sense to me.

[Tommyng]

I’ve done the same thing with culverts but in the end, a fence and a dog was just more convenient.

[fliptop]

I have a fenced yard and dogs, and rabbits still find their way in. Sometimes they don't find their way out before one of my dogs gets to them 😝

I use the green plastic "chicken wire" with much success. Prior to using it, I was having the same issues Joe was.

[spaugh]

You guys have jackrabbits out there in Florida?  The jackrabbits here will really tear up tree bark even on large trees.

[fliptop]

Not that I know of, spaugh. Eastern Cottontails and marsh rabbits are what I see here. I have had bites taken out of woody trunks of mango and peach trees by them.

[JoeP450]

You know, I kinda don’t feel so bad knowing I’m not the only one dealing with this problem. Where I live every lawn has a family of brown rabbits living on it maybe 10 per house. I REFUSE TO NEGOTIATE WITH ANY SQUIRRELS THOUGH....

Joe

[SeaWalnut]

Rabits started to eat my almond trees this year until i painted the trunks with slaked lime( diluted a bit).
I also made spiral guards ftom plastic pet bottles and put them around the trunks of the trees but that was too much and slaked lime paint was enough to deter the rabits.
You cant paint the leaves thogh and the tree guards are good until the tree gets tall enough so that the rabits cant reach the leaves.

Because farmers take all the hay from the big field where i have my almonds planted ,i found amazing that the rabbits starve and have to eat my trees.
Starting from this year i will leave somme hay among my trees so that the rabits can eat eat hay and not my trees wich they dont prefer.
Before i was giving all the hay to be colected by a cow ranch but from now on il let it for the rabbits and deer.( i also dont trust those cow farmers to come and mow the hay between my trees).

[palmcity]

1.  I painted the trunks.
2. I also made spiral guards from plastic bottles
3. I will leave some hay among my trees so that the rabbits can eat eat hay and not my trees

Agree as choices to use.
Another choice is just to let the grass and weeds grow thick and tall around your small plants without weeding around the plants. I have not had rabbits take the time to deliberately eat the small plant I had planted as long as there are plenty of weeds growing around it. Probably look at Frog's pictures & if you have that many tall weeds around your small plants, they are probably safe from rabbits.

[Rannman]

This is what the hares have done to my mangoes and dragonfruit during our insane dry spell. Also chewed into everything else in the yard. Citrus, pineapples, frangipanis, ficus ,pecans and nearly every other plant I grow. Needless to say, I’ve got chicken wire everywhere.

[Tropheus76]

Rabbits are what a simple cheap .22 rifle is made for. Relatively quiet so you can shoot it in residential areas pretty easily. Thankfully the ones in my yard really don't mess with any of my trees so I haven't had to shoot at them, unlike the deer who my wife compares me to wily coyote and the Roadrunner. Deer are outright vermin needing to be destroyed.

[SeaWalnut]

Rabbits are what a simple cheap .22 rifle is made for. Relatively quiet so you can shoot it in residential areas pretty easily. Thankfully the ones in my yard really don't mess with any of my trees so I haven't had to shoot at them, unlike the deer who my wife compares me to wily coyote and the Roadrunner. Deer are outright vermin needing to be destroyed.

Goodluck trying to hunt rabbits with a rifle  .
Ive tryed for almost 20 years and didnt got one thogh i was cloose at somme point ( i was looking through the sniperscope at a relaxed rabbit like as it was a deer)
To hunt rabbits you can only do it with a shotgun or non riffled barrel 2 .
With a 22 cal rifle you can only shot domestic rabits.
Im not that mad on them to shot them and i use better tactics to deter them eating my trees.

Just found 2 deers on my orchard yesterday and a missing tree.My brother got mad on the deer just to found out it was a human that took the tree out ,probably to stole it and then thow it few meters away barerooted.
Crazy as i am i planted the tree back in the same spot  .
The deers did no harm but they probably will soon thogh i hope it will not be severe destruction.

[Tropheus76]

They are easy to shoot in my area. I had one that would let me get within 5 feet before running a distance to keep a buffer area, it got hit by a speeding car though. In general they wait til you get close before moving much. The deer I have will shred  citrus, mulberry, loquat apple, plum and a large number of flowering trees and bushes like camellias and hydrangeas. The will literally knock over my all spice, lychee and mangos rubbing their antlers on them. The bad part is they don't do it every night and they do it late at night when I am not outside.

[Oolie]

What's worse than a rabbit in a squirrel trap?
Half a rabbit.

I occasionally catch rabbits in the live multi-catch squirrel traps.

Thing is that the squirrels in our area are predatory, and will nom anything that can't get away fast enough.

About this time of year when there are no immature fruit hanging for the squirrels to tear into, they group up and hunt wildlife in packs. I've watched them ambush rabbits and other squirrels. It's brutal.

[pineislander]

I've taken rabbits with small rifles, rocks from slingshots and even a motorcycle front wheel. Hunt rabbits first thing in the morning, as close to sunrise as possible. By the way look for a small loaded .22 rifle bullet known as a "colibri". They are subsonic and can be fired without anyone knowing you are shooting.


Be aware that anyone with a gun in the USA is now at risk of nuts thinking you are an "active shooter". One nuisance wildlife hunter here recently was hunting Iguana with an air gun but fairly close to a school and someone called in the SWAT team on him, suddenly surrounded by dozens held at gunpoint and could have been killed.

[palmcity]

By the way look for a small loaded .22 rifle bullet known as a "colibri". They are subsonic and can be fired without anyone knowing you are shooting.

First time reading about subsonic & colibri .22 bullets.
When checking youtube video first one I checked it seems to say less than 500ft/sec... I believe that is slower than many .22 pellet rifles that are subsonic... So why not just use a .22 pellet rifle that appears to be a little faster yet still subsonic?   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih2fNip4rJs

[JoeP450]

I’m aware of calibri caps for .22 rifle and was my fathers original recommendation for the squirrels but I settled on squirrlinator trap. I think the rifle idea is bad idea for if nosy neighbors see the cops could be called, a social media campaign launched, and Local chapter of PETA protests outside my house... I live in an HoA community on 1/3 of an acre so tall grass/weeds are not an option as deterrent for alternate choice to rabbits. It has been frustrating I sprouted about 50 high end mango seeds and planted in 1 gallon pots from fruit I ate from zills this year and about half were killed by rabbits, then fungus... I have like 5 that survived this season. I had no idea what was cutting them in half until one morning I went out to check on them and a rabbit was sitting on a pot eating away.


Joe

[SeaWalnut]

You probably have domestic rabbits that became wild if you can shot them with 22 rifle( or any rifle).
Tell here to any hunter that you shot a rabit with a rifle and youl become the butt of jokes.
Rabbit hunting is done only with non rifled guns that shot a lot of pellets at once not a single bullet and you target the rabit while he is running .
Rabbits dont sit and wait for you to aim them.Its a dinamic hunt that happens soo fast you have to aim in front of the area you want to hit ( aim for the ears or the nose in front if the rabbit not the rabit itself becase the hit will fall behind him).

[palmcity]

You probably have domestic rabbits that became wild if you can shot them with 22 rifle( or any rifle).
Tell here to any hunter that you shot a rabit with a rifle and youl become the butt of jokes.
Rabbit hunting is done only with non rifled guns that shot a lot of pellets at once not a single bullet and you target the rabit while he is running .
Rabbits dont sit and wait for you to aim them.Its a dinamic hunt that happens soo fast you have to aim in front of the area you want to hit ( aim for the ears or the nose in front if the rabbit not the rabit itself becase the hit will fall behind him).

lol... too funny.... In Martin County Fl I believe we have primarily cottontail rabbits.
google::: The wild cottontail rabbit, which is more like domesticated rabbits, can reach speeds of 35 mph, but usually doesn't go faster than 30 mph... https://www.welcomewildlife.com/fast-facts-rabbits-and-hares-of-north-america/

https://animals.mom.me/difference-between-cottontails-european-rabbits-5950.html
google search: How fast can a European rabbit run?
45 mph
European hares and jack rabbits, which are also hares, can run upwards of 45 mph.Dec 26, 2018

[spaugh]

I've shot lots of wild rabbits with a 22.  You have to get them while they are not moving obviously.  These are not domesticated animals released, they are cotton tails and jackrabbits.  I keep a loaded 22 and .410 shotgun on a gun rack in my garage for killing animals if necessary.  The 410 is my preferred rabbit gun because it's easy to hit them when they run. 

I dont shoot them though unless they get stuck in my orchard and I can't get them out.  We have chicken wire at the bottom of the deer fence to keep them out but occasionally they slip through the gate or find a crack and get stuck inside and I can't get them back out the gate. 

[SeaWalnut]

Here 16 and 12 shotguns are used to hunt rabbits.
I get it that our european rabbits are a loy more hard to hunt than american rabits.I still think that hunting rabits with a 22 its a bad idea.
22 its just for target practice not for hunting and even if youd hit the rabit he would still have plenty of chances to run away wounded .
Ive hinted animals that had recovered after being shot by poachers with 22 and found the bullets inside them along with fur or feathers.
A friend of me has killed a lion with a 22 bit the lion was in a cage and was to euthanasiate him.Had shot it multiple times  in the head.He offered me to take the skull but i didnt wanted it .

[Tropheus76]

Ha! My dad regularly goes out to barrier islands and hunts wild Iberian pigs  and deer with silenced .22 rifles. He and his friends go out about once a month and rarely fail to bring something back. They also one shot them typically. You just need to know where to shoot them and sneak up close.