“What’s up Doc?” in Island Lakes

I love animals. Well... most animals. I like to think wild animals are just as much as part of the landscape as the dogs on their leash or geese flying above.

However, one wild animal that is absolutely precious has overstayed its welcome in my yard.

A hot topic of discussion of late, not just in Island Lakes, but throughout the city in general, has been how the rabbit population seems to be booming.

Rabbits are cute when they bound around and chase one another; however, this summer there seems to be two bunnies to every yard. At my home, they have chewed my flowers up to a foot on the stalks and they seem to be heading into my vegetable garden — the same vegetable garden we painstakingly surrounded with chicken wire last year to keep the little varmints out. Where there is a will, there is a way and the rabbits have found one into my garden.

The chicken wire makes an ugly fence but it had two purposes — keeping the rabbits and our puppy out of the garden. But now the rabbits just seem to taunt as she stalks them from our back window. My poor dog paces back and forth in hopes someone will release her so she can ‘take care’ of our rabbit problem.

But I don’t want the rabbits harmed, so we are very careful before we let her out — just in case. We have already had an incident, which was a case of gross, bad timing.

I did a little research on how to keep rabbits away in a humane fashion, which will be this weekend’s project.  

First, you’re supposed to clear all thigh grass, tall weeds and any other clutter, such as gardening equipment, supplies or even wood piles.

I have had my dog go through my garden and rub her scent around the rhubarb and raspberry bushes at the back of the fence. Apparently rabbits do not like other pet animal scents, and it’s same with human scent. So you can take human hair from your brush and spread it around the base of your plants.

A trick I used years ago, before we had the dog, was to spread blood meal and work it in the soil around the garden. Apparently cat litter also works as well. Odour repellents containing potassium salts, naphthalene or ammonium are very effective but they’re not recommended to use around pets.

Finally, check for gaps under your fence and nail additional boards to block any holes.

Good luck!

Jasmine van Gerwen is a community correspondent for Island Lakes. She can be reached at jasvangerwen@shaw.ca