Published: April 25, 2008 01:41 pm            

Preventing damage from rascally rabbits

Q: I live in the country and as I’ve been looking at my young trees, shrubs and perennials, I’m finding lots of damage from rabbits. Is there any way to prevent this damage in the future?

K. B., Zionsville

A: As we gardeners inspect our landscape plants after a long winter, we are discovering significant plant damage caused by rabbits and voles (field mice) gnawing on young stems of plants. This winter on mornings after a fresh snow, our Boone County property had so many rabbit tracks, it looked like we hosted a rascally rabbit version of Woodstock.

Both of these nasty gnawers (rabbits and voles) will remove the outer bark to get at the inner green, succulent phloem and cambium. Voles gnaw off tiny strips of bark, leaving marks like two tiny chisels, approximately 1/16-inch wide and 3/8-inch long. Damage done under the snow line tends to be vole or mice damage. The area around the damage is usually filled with their runways in the grass. Unfortunately, rabbits can use changing snow levels as “elevators” to damage mains stems as high as 3 to 4 feet above the ground. Their damage on main stems appears as much larger twin chisel marks approximately 1/4-inch to 3/8-inch wide. Rabbits may also prune small branches leaving clean cuts that are at 45 degree angles, matching the angles of their incisors.

Playing defense if often the best option to prevent rabbit damage. A 1-inch mesh fence of poultry netting (chicken wire) works well to protect vegetable gardens. Plastic coated chicken wire lasts much longer than non-coated wire, and I find it easier to work with. To exclude rabbits from your entire backyard, you could use a welded wire mesh of 1-inch by 2-inch or 1 inch to exclude young rabbits, but mesh of 2-inch by 3-inch fence does not work.

Commercial nurseries, tree farms and other large areas can be protected with a double-strand electric fence. Place electric wires at 3 inches to 4 inches and at least 8 inches to 12 inches above the ground, according to Dallas Virchow and Scott Hygnstrom, Extension Wildlife Damage specialists, University of Nebraska.

To protect individual trees and shrubs, placing cylinders of _ inch Cindy Starks 4/17/08 how many inch?? hardware cloth or other wire mesh can protect trees from rabbit and vole damage. This is the method I successfully use here in Boone County when planting trees on my property. Nearly all of my young trees would be killed or severely girdled without protection from rabbits and voles.

Plants with strong aromas are usually avoided by rabbits. Some rarely eaten species are black walnut, juniper, fir, barberry and cotoneaster. Selecting plants from published plant lists that show rabbit resistance doesn’t always work because of different environmental conditions. For example, even the normally “rabbit-resistant” junipers weren’t always spared from the winter and early spring munching damage of these creatures.



Doug Akers is an Extension Educator for the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service, Agriculture & Natural Resources department. He can be reached at (765) 482-0750.

        

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