How to get rid of hares in the country

Anyone who cultivates soil knows that hares can do much more harm than a few carrots eaten. These long-eared animals have a huge appetite for all types of fresh vegetation - woody annuals and perennials, vegetables and berries. In fact, the menu of their favorite “dishes” is so extensive that it's easier to name a few plants they don't like.

Hares have an extremely high reproductive potential, so allowing them to live unhindered nearby is a threat of a real invasion of your garden. Hares bring up to 3 litters of 6 hares per year in the north and up to 6 litters of 3 cubs in the south. Reproduction lasts all year round, and the gestation period takes 29 days.

Lop-eared are hunted by more than 2 dozen predators, so the main opportunity that your yard gives him is to eat and not be eaten. For this reason, eating your petunias is not a carefree picnic for the animal, but a dangerous mission. However, if the neighbor's hare can crawl through the fence to your yard, he will be safe.

You can check out our tips for protecting plants from hares, but try to treat them like the English writer Beatrice Potter - as an integral part of a peaceful country life. This way you can protect the plants that you and the hares love, and you don't have to worry about the rest. Read:how to deal with moles in the garden and garden with folk remedies?

How to tell if hares are visiting your garden

Of the nine species of North American hares, the Florida is the most common and annoying. Its habitat is almost the entire territory of the United States and southern Mexico. It is rare in the forests, preferring to live in fenced fields, under fences and in the backyards of houses. His love of flowers, vegetables, bark and bulbs often leads to pruning of peppers and cosmos.

Even though the animal is affectionately referred to as bunny and fluffy, and you probably want to befriend it as soon as you see those cute ears, the East Florida hare can become a pesky pest. The safest hiding places for a pest are heaps of branches and leaves, as well as burrows abandoned by other animals. Unlike their European counterparts, these hares do not dig their own holes, preferring to find ready ones.

The eared ones rarely leave their homes during the day, preferring early morning or twilight. Like other animals, they are sensitive to changes in day length in spring. For the oblique, this is a signal for 2 things: the breeding season and feeding.

As voracious animals, hares leave a clean, even cut on your plants. Check leaves and stems for such damage. After insects and other pests, gnawed, uneven edges usually remain on broken plants. A smooth hare cut is often seen on the stems near the ground, and the pests like to eat tasty green shoots of tulips and other flowers.

Fluffy guests smell the first tender young shoots and gnaw them clean. They love to chew clover, peas, lettuce, beans, and many other plants. Marmots also love this treat, so check the garden for burrows before deciding on the presence of hares. As a rule, when plants pass the seedling stage, they cease to interest rodents.

Although hares gnaw anything and everything at any time of the year, they are especially active in early spring, mercilessly eating young shoots.One Connecticut gardener complained, “My tulips had just made their way through the snow when they were eaten by the roots. There were a lot of bunny prints around, so the culprit is obvious. "

How to get rid of wild rabbits

Although we talked mainly about the East Florida hare, our tips are suitable for any type of eared pest:

1. Get a dog. Yes, this is a waste and a responsibility, but this is the best way to keep rabbits away from the site.
2. The hare's nose is constantly in motion, sniffing the space. Sprinkle dry sulfur around the plants and on the leaves. He also doesn't like the smell of onions, so plant them around the perimeter of your garden to ward off future pests.
3. You can sprinkle the plants with talcum powder or red pepper powder to ward off the hares.
4. Make an anti-glaze cocktail and spray the plants after rain. To do this, combine 3 hot peppers, 3 large onions and a bunch of garlic. Then fill with water, leave in a closed container overnight, and strain in the morning. After that, pour 5 liters of water, and the mixture is ready.
5. Spray your plants with 1 tsp. lysol per 5 liters of water.
6. Some people protect the plants with cans or screen collars to allow plantings to reach a less vulnerable size. Place these around each stem.
7. Use wire mesh cylinders to protect the bark of fruit trees. The cylinders must be high so that the animal cannot climb over them, standing on its hind legs, and the distance to the tree trunk is at least 5 cm.
8. Some argue that deer repellents based on dried bovine blood and garlic are suitable for scaring wild rabbits.
9. There is a belief that hares are afraid of their reflection, so place more glass jars in different parts of the garden. Stores sell pre-made reflectors and other toys, such as fake snakes and mechanical owls, designed to repel pests.

Sometimes, humane traps are the best remedy. If you don't want to buy one, you can make it yourself. Place the trap where you saw the eared eared feeding and cover it with a cloth. Place vegetables and fruits on top as bait. Check the caught hares regularly and release them a few kilometers from your home.

How to get rid of hares in the country and keep them away from the site

The best way to keep eared pests away from the site is to start spraying and other manipulations that hares do not like from early spring, and then consistently perform them throughout the growing season.

To keep scythes from entering your garden, start sprinkling dried pig blood and human hair around the plants early in the season as early as possible. Repeat the procedure after every heavy rain.

If you have a dog, this method is not suitable, the smell attracts it, provoking it to dig the ground in the planting area.

Don't rely entirely on repellents. The most effective way to keep wild rabbits out is with a wire mesh fence. Set up a fence about 120 cm high and dig 15 cm into the ground. Bend the top edge of the fence horizontally out of the garden. Thanks to this, hares will not be able to climb and climb over the obstacle.

Eared pests do not like to leave their shelters, so cut down on all possible options for arranging their homes. Remove all heaps of branches and leaves, fill in the holes. If the hare has nowhere to live, it will most likely leave your site. In addition, animals reproduce best in a comfortable environment, so this is another reason not to give them that chance.

What plants do wild rabbits dislike

According to scientists, hares' food preferences are based on nutritional value, presence of venom or thorns, and availability.Their tastes can vary by region and season, so not all plants are suitable for them. Be smart and plant plants that hares don't like very much.

Eared beetles avoid the same plants as deer, as well as Japanese beetles. If you want to control all of these pests, check out the list of crops Japanese beetles and deer dislike. Choose forsythia, marigold, zinnias, lavender, and snapdragon against hares. This will help reduce the likelihood of their arrival, but it does not give a 100% guarantee that hungry hares will eat absolutely everything. And yet your garden will become less attractive to them than someone else's.

Here are a few more plant species that hares do not like:

• peonies;
• perennial sage;
• veronica;
• creeping phlox;
• lamb's ear;
• azalea;
• rhododendron;
• boxwood;
• geranium;
• marigold;
• marigold;
• wax begonia;
• narcissus;
• hyacinth;
• persian bow;
• asparagus;
• onions and leeks;
• potatoes;
• rhubarb;
• tomatoes;
• basil;
• oregano;
• parsley;
• sagebrush.

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