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Rabbits

Rabbits

Sylvilagus spp.

Mammalalso: Cottontail rabbit

Cottontail rabbits are among the most common garden raiders, clipping off seedlings, beans, lettuce, and other tender plants with a clean, angled cut and gnawing the bark of young trees in winter. They breed fast, so a tidy fence around the vegetables is the surest defense.

🔎 How to spot it

Rabbit feeding leaves a clean, sharp, 45-degree angled cut on stems and a neatly clipped look on low plants, all within a couple of feet of the ground; their sharp incisors leave no torn, ragged ends like deer. Other signs are pea-sized round droppings, patches of gnawed bark on young trunks in winter, and the rabbits themselves at dawn and dusk.

🥀 Damage it causes

Rabbits eat a wide range of vegetables and flowers, favoring young, tender growth, and can mow down a row of seedlings or beans quickly; the clean angled cut is their signature. In winter, when other food is scarce, they gnaw the bark and clip the low branches of young trees and shrubs, sometimes girdling and killing them.

🛡️ Prevent it

A low fence is highly effective: chicken wire or hardware cloth about two to three feet tall with one-inch-or-smaller mesh, with the bottom buried or bent outward at the base so rabbits cannot dig under. Cage or wrap young tree trunks with hardware cloth for winter. Remove the brush piles, tall weeds, and debris that give rabbits cover near the garden.

🧯 If it is already here

If a fence is not yet up, taste and odor repellents can help for a while, but they wear off and often fail in a vegetable garden full of preferred food, so reapply after rain and rotate products. Live-trapping and relocating is limited by local rules and rarely a lasting fix. Exclusion with a buried-bottom fence remains the dependable solution.

💡 Good to know

Tell rabbits from deer by the cut: rabbits leave a clean, knife-like 45-degree slice low to the ground, deer leave a torn, ragged break higher up. Because cottontails reproduce so quickly and repellents fade, a modest, well-secured fence around the vegetable patch is by far the best investment.

🌱 Plants it attacks

714 plants in the library can be attacked by this pest

Acorn SquashAdirondack Blue PotatoAdzuki BeanAfrican Blue BasilAfrican MarigoldAgapanthusAgeratumAgrimonyAji Amarillo Pepper🍓Albion StrawberryAlice du Pont Mandevilla🥔All Blue PotatoAlmondAloe VeraAmbrosia CornAmerican BasswoodAmerican Beauty Dragon FruitAmerican BeechAmerican PersimmonAmethyst Falls WisteriaAmish Paste TomatoAnaheim PepperAnemoneAngelique TulipAngeloniaAniseAnise HyssopAnjou PearAnnabelle Smooth HydrangeaAnnual VincaApeldoorn TulipApple MintApril Tryst CamelliaArbequina OliveArizona Sun Blanket FlowerArkin CarambolaArmenian CucumberAroniaArp RosemaryArugulaAshwagandhaAsian PearAsian PersimmonAtemoyaAtlantic Giant Pumpkin🥕Atomic Red CarrotAucubaAugust Beauty GardeniaAunt Molly's Ground CherryAutumn Joy SedumAvocadoBachelor's ButtonBalsam FirBalsam PoplarBanana PepperBarbara Karst BougainvilleaBartlett PearBay LaurelBayberryBeach PlumBeauregard Sweet PotatoBecky Shasta DaisyBee Balm🍅Beefmaster TomatoBenarys Giant ZinniaBengal Tiger CannaBetter Boy Tomato🥬Bibb Lettuce🍅Big Beef TomatoBig Boy TomatoBilberryBing CherryBitter MelonBlack BeanBlack Beauty EggplantBlack Beauty ZucchiniBlack Beluga LentilBlack Cherry TomatoBlack CrowberryBlack Currant🍉Black Diamond WatermelonBlack Kabouli ChickpeaBlack Krim TomatoBlack RaspberryBlack Sapote🥬Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce🥕Black Spanish RadishBlack Tartarian CherryBlack WalnutBlack-Eyed PeaBlack-eyed Susan VineBlood OrangeBloomsdale SpinachBlue Bird DelphiniumBlue Bird Rose of SharonBlue FescueBlue Lake Green BeanBluecrop BlueberryBocking 14 ComfreyBok Choy

For educational and informational purposes only. Pest control advice is general guidance drawn from university cooperative extension sources; always identify a pest positively and read and follow the label on any product before use, especially around food crops, children, and pets.