Build a small fence around your garden to keep rabbits out
The most effective way to keep rabbits out of a garden is to erect a fence around it. The fence can be a simple design of wire mesh and posts, at least two feet high. Cottontail rabbits will not dig under fences but may push through weak spots at the bottom. To prevent this, the fencing should be sunk vertically into the ground at least eight inches.
Scare rabbits away from your garden
Rabbits are a prey species, so they are easily frightened and wary of changes in their environment. If you would like to discourage them from nesting in future, make the area unappealing. Wait until any existing baby rabbits have grown up and left the nest before trying any of these techniques.
Place unfamiliar visual stimuli around the yard, such as beach balls (they bounce around in the wind), shiny colourful pinwheels, or colourful foil balloons. Empty beer or pop bottles buried up to their necks in the ground will make a scary whistling noise when the wind blows. A motion-sensing sprinkler can work well to deter rabbits and other animals. Mesh bags, like the ones onions come in, can be filled with pet fur or human hair from your brush, and hung at rabbit eye level.
Be creative! Visual deterrents are very effective at keeping cottontail rabbits away.
Be kind to rabbits
These techniques should not be used if there is a known rabbit nest in the area, as harassment may cause the mother to abandon her young.
Trapping and relocating rabbits doesn’t work—it’s harmful to the animals and doesn’t address the problem.
