# How to scare off bunnies ?



## BeMahoney (Jan 26, 2014)

Hey everyone,

a guy in the neighbourhood wants to scare bunnies off..

They keep eating his vegetable, and he even lost one of

the kid´s bunnies because of a disease those wild critters

around brought to them..

What do you think? - I asked him why he won´t go all the way

and get some nice recipes from the internet..

He´s strictly against that, "the neighbours"..

So how can they be "scared off" -

He suggests that they may "learn" ... 

- I think they won´t..

But what would you use as ammo? (Or probably an accident, followed by a recipe?..)

Any ideas are welcome!

kind regards,

Be


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## Crimson Owl (Jun 29, 2014)

A nice big hex nut to the.... I mean some bacon wrapped around him and then baked sounds nice.


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## BeMahoney (Jan 26, 2014)

Forgot to say:

It´s about scaring them off using a slingshot.. Of course!


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

The problem is that anything that will fly straight for a reasonable distance is likely to injure them.

In that situation, I would bait them into box traps and then take them elsewhere and release them. In my case, the "elsewhere" would be my basement, where they would be released into my oven. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

There are lots of how-to videos on Youtube:
















I started making these traps when I was a lad, and over the years, I have caught hundreds of rabbits with them. For rabbits, I find parsnip is a good bait. It is quite odiferous, and remains so for a long time, and it is very attractive to rabbits.

Just set out a couple of traps, and check them once a day. That way you do not have to skulk about, hoping to spot a rabbit. And the neighbors will never know what you are up to.

Cheers ..... Charles


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## squirrel squasher (May 17, 2013)

How about a dog!


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

Someone asked me about the trigger details. Basically, the trigger bar is just a notched stick which fits through a hole in the top of the box. That bait is put into the back of the box. The bunny will try to push past the notched stick, and that will then slip up through the hole. The balance stick will then drop the sliding door. Here is a crude diagram.









I find that these work best if there is mesh on one end of the trap rather than having it completely closed, as the wee beast then feels more confident it can just walk through the box. Of course you can get complicated and have two sliding doors, one at each end, but that is way too complicated for my taste. Remember the KISS principle ... Keep It Simple, Stupid!

There are lots of other trigger and door mechanisms, and I have tried a variety. But this is very, very simple and quite reliable.

Cheers ... Charles


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)




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## flipgun (Nov 14, 2012)

Most sporting goods places sell Fox urine for some hunting activities. A few drops on gun cleaning patches tied at regular intervals will keep them off. Also using blood meal around the perimeter discourages foragers. It must be re-applied after rain but it is good for the garden too.


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## BeMahoney (Jan 26, 2014)

Thanks for



Charles said:


> The problem is that anything that will fly straight for a reasonable distance is likely to injure them.
> 
> In that situation, I would bait them into box traps and then take them elsewhere and release them. In my case, the "elsewhere" would be my basement, where they would be released into my oven. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


Oooooh! - Thanks for these laughs!

Good to know such a polite and rabbit-loving gentleman 

I´m curious what Michael thinks about your "solution"...

How do you mhh introduce them to "the other side"?

- Grab them at their ears and slap their rear end?

- Or a re rabbits some sort of fish?....

kind regards,

Be


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## Charles (Aug 26, 2010)

The technique I have always used is to grasp the hind legs of the rabbit in my left hand, grasp the neck of the rabbit in my right hand, with a back hand grip over the top ... palm on the back of the bunny's head with thumb and index finger around the neck. Then you just pull forcibly while tilting the head of the bunny back. That breaks the neck, severing the spinal chord, and results in a very quick death.

I used to have a small commercial rabbitry, and I always slaughtered my rabbits that way. But over a lot of time, it results in what used to be known as "poachers thumb" or "gamekeepers thumb". That is severe pain, arthritis, in the lowest thumb joint. And yep, I have a pretty severe case of it now.

http://radiopaedia.org/articles/gamekeeper-thumb

This technique is often known as "chinning" and is described here:

http://www.how-to-hunt-rabbit.com/killing-rabbit.html

Another technique, which I do not like, is to club the bunny in the back of the neck ... the so-called "rabbit punch" known to boxing fans. I do not like it because it is likely to result in severe bruising to the meat.

Cheers .... Charles


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## BeMahoney (Jan 26, 2014)

Ouch! - that´s not so funny..


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

another method to skin a bunny


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## Nobodo (Nov 5, 2014)

I have an electric fence around my garden, also 7 foot deer fencing, and don't have any pests other than birds that get in (keeps out deer, squirrels, skunks, raccoons).

The deer fencing alone did the job the first couple of years, but squirrels chew through it, so that's why the electric fence was added.

It took some experimentation to figure out how to set up the electric fence to truly keep out the squirrels; they keep trying and trying in spite of shocks.

Rabbits and voles could possibly figure out to dig under the fence, so at the bottom I buried small mesh chicken wire 6 inches and turned an additional 6 inches outward.

So far nothing has dug into the garden.

My yard in general just has a 4-foot tall split rail fence around it, with 2x4 mesh to keep dogs from escaping.

Deer happily jump over that, squirrels love to play on it, and rabbits manage to push on the wire to enlarge the 2x4 holes so they can get through.

Coyotes don't try to get past it, but foxes have no problem at all jumping right up on top of the fence and over.

Raccoons and skunks climb right over the fence as if they were walking on flat ground.

But... one of my dogs lives to chase things out of the yard.

She's been in a few fights with raccoons as a result as they don't scare so easily, and sprayed by skunks, but other than a buck in rut critters will run.

Rabbits quit coming into the yard completely.

Now that she's getting older, unless I get her really excited about chasing something in the yard, she'll more likely just sit and watch a deer or rabbit walk right through the yard.

Now in the past year I've seen a lot of damage to shrubs from rabbits.

I tried traps and suggestions for catching rabbits but no matter what I tried the grasses and shrubs were more attractive to the rabbits than anything I tried.

The traps were great for catching skunks and raccoons but no luck at all with rabbits.

I guess it's time to get another puppy, and start training at a young age to CHASE!!

Garden; picture taken before deer fencing was put in. I already had part of the yard fenced off as a dog run, and to create the garden area I just put new fencing (at right) on part of the dog run. My usual slingshot practice area is to the left of the wood pile outside the garden area at left (I shoot just left of the wood pile toward the top of the hill, in the distance).


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## JediMike (Jan 1, 2015)

Nobodo said:


> she'll more likely just sit and watch a deer or rabbit walk right through the yard.
> ​


Sir, you have a dog and yard that deer periodically walk through. You have life pretty well sorted out.


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## Nobodo (Nov 5, 2014)

JediMike said:


> Nobodo said:
> 
> 
> > she'll more likely just sit and watch a deer or rabbit walk right through the yard.
> ...


I don't know about the well sorted part, but plenty of mule deer and a dog that in her younger years lived for chasing animals!

And I've definitely found nothing to work better at keeping rabbits out of the yard than a dedicated dog!

Here are some 'yard deer' you might enjoy!


A buck at the start of rut, trying to decide if he wants to forcibly remove me from my front yard or allow me to actually get the mail from the mailbox. The same garden pictured above is in the background, and so is Crinkles (upper right), the deer/rabbit/anything-that-moves chaser.
Another buck trying to sleep in the back yard.
Three generations, same spot as where the buck was trying to sleep in the above picture.
A young doe in the middle of my slingshot range getting WAY too curious for its own good. When young they are more curious about people than fear them. This picture was taken before I got back into slingshots, but the bricks are almost exactly where I set a catchbox for 10 meter practice.
And.... before we got the dogs, here's a typical back yard scene one morning and then again a week later. No dogs, that was a daily scene. With a young Crinkles the Critter Chaser, no deer in yard and definitely no rabbits. Old Crinkles, and it's pretty much returning to this. Time to get a Crinkles Jr. for no rabbits again!


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