Rabbits are one of the most common residents of your yard and garden, and though they may look cute, they can be a serious pest to your plants and vegetables. Large populations of rabbits can quickly and efficiently chew their way through your lawn, digging up bulbs and plants and leaving behind a trail of general destruction and dead plants. Thankfully, if you have a large rabbit population around your home, there are a number of things that you can do to humanely reduce their population.

Lawn Maintenance

The first and easiest thing that you can do to reduce your yard's population of rabbits is to make it less attractive for rabbits to take up residence in. You can do this by performing regular lawn maintenance. For starters, you should mow your lawn and rake up the lawn clippings to reduce the potential food sources that rabbits are drawn to. Further, you can get rid of overgrown weeds and other pieces of vegetation that could be inviting, and eliminate unnecessary piles of dirt, wood, and debris that could provide a hospitable environment for rabbits to hide in.

Humane Trapping

Once rabbits have actually taken up residence in your yard, your only option to actually remove them is to physically remove them yourself. To do this, you can purchase a humane cage trap from most hardware stores. Simply place lettuce or some other type of bait within the trap and follow the directions to install the trap in an ideal area of your yard. All you have to do is wait, checking the trap several times a day, and once you get a rabbit, simply drive it to a new forested area and open the cage up to release it.

Proper Fencing

In order to proactively prevent future rabbits from taking up residence in your yard, beyond simply keeping the yard clean, install fencing that is capable of withstanding rabbits. You'll want to use chicken wire, which is made out of wire that rabbits can't chew through. You'll also want to have the fence installed at least half a foot into the ground to prevent rabbits from burrowing underneath it. All you have to do is dig a six inch trench around your garden, drive stakes into the trench using a hammer, and then use a staple gun to fasten the chicken wire to the stakes themselves. Fill the trench back in, and you've made an impenetrable rabbit barrier for your garden.

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