Monday, June 23, 2008

Mr McGregor Got a Bad Rap

Bunnies have overtaken my world.

(In my wildest dreams, I never imagined that as a beginning line to a blog post.)

A couple of years ago, we noticed a bunny around the neighborhood. It was all very Beatrix Potter. I even considered putting up a little scarecrow in the garden, just for the storybook joy of it.

So in the beginning the bunnies were adorable and novel and furry. But the cuteness and novelty is wearing off as fast as they are eating my garden lettuce. I think we can safely say that all three (the cuteness, the novelty, and the lettuce) are COMPLETELY GONE.

But Thumper and his buddies? They're EVERYWHERE. (And they're fatter than ever thanks to their luscious diet of garden treats.)

And when I say everywhere, what I really mean is:
  • in my garden
  • squashed by a car in the street
  • nesting in the flowers of my front yard ( no less than 5-6 at a time scatter when I go out.)
  • in and out of the garage if it's left open for more than a minute or two.
  • living under my back deck, in a place where the dog can not get to them, but it is driving her insane. Which in turn is driving me insane, because she barks at them at random hours of the day and night. Also she is scratching up the deck and the lawn trying to get under there.
And they're multiplying like - well, you get the picture.

And not to go all Mr MacGregor on Peter Rabbit and his friends, but on more than one occasion, certain alert neighbors might have heard me yelling bunny-cenities and waving a rake.

It's coming down to the wire. It's either me or them. (Or maybe the stupid dog. But what I know for sure is that there are way too many mammals in the equation.)

The Brain keeps talking about rabbit stew - mostly to bother the girls, I think. But not me. I'm considering leaving some tiny black tennis shoes and some a special bunny Kool-aid under the deck. I figure I'm just a comet away from a good strawberry harvest.

22 comments:

Heather said...

Oh man, that would be annoying. Our garden nemesis is the annoying birds. Luckily we found some "bird tape" and that seems to be helping.

Heidi said...

We had a neighborhood bunny for a while. It quickly becomes bunnies and then . . . a horde.

Anonymous said...

We have a ton of bunnies. The cuteness wears off quickly, I agree.

Apparently, in this area, everybody has a pellet gun and they shoot at them. It doesn't kill or maim them if you hit them, it just gets the "you are unwelcome" message across, and they quit showing up. We haven't gotten there yet, but once we put in a garden, I haven't ruled it out.

For now, we are just trying to make our fence better and hope that takes care of it (it has helped).

Amy Peterson said...

When animals start attacking the garden, they have gone way too far! I'm not much of an animal person my self, I tend to scream and run from things like dogs, large birds, cows, sheep, you get the picture, when they give me the "I'm smarter then you think look", I want to be as far away as possible!

Caroline C. Bingham said...

Bunnycide is the way to go.

Yvonne said...

Poor bunny phoo phoo...

Seriously, I would be annoyed, too. Not sure what I'd do.

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

Time to save up for a greenhouse?

How maddening!

Vern said...

Call a moroccan restaurant and see if they're in short supply. Maybe you'll score a free dinner?

Help I need a user name! said...

Once, LONG ago, when I was a child, we hung up the little pie tins from pot pies, and from graham cracker crusts. I don't know if you've done that yet, but for some reason, it worked to keep deer out of our garden. Or yeah, rabbit stew.

Unknown said...

that would drive me bonkers, too, about how it is driving your doggie bonkers. i hate it when our inside doggies react/freak out/bark because a dog walked by the front of the house. gets very loud at times. and no wild bunny is safe in our backyard when our doggies are out back doing their business. one time a wild bunny entered our backyard and i kid you not ... two of our doggies did the tag team wrestling on it. they teamed up and pulled the bunny apart. head popped right off, killing it instantly. our girls freaked out. man, i was impressed. hehe. wish i had seen it. was so impressed at how the dogs employed teamwork traits like that. do you want me to send my pups over to your yard? hope your situation gets better very soon. the noise would get to me! feel for ya, kathleen

mindyluwho said...

I hear rabbit stew is tasty, especially if served with a yummy salad from the garden!

Unknown said...

I'll ask mom and dad how they keep them out of their garden. I think it involves hanging soap in old pantyhose. I know it works for deer, don't know about the rabbits.

Rhonda said...

Bunnies, deer, turkey's, squirrels, you name it.... it was all so cute and novel when we first moved here. Now, I think we have been reported to PETA. (Doesn't help that the Pres. of the local PETA lives across the street.)

I have become an expert at planting my tomatoes in containers on my high deck.

Nancy Face said...

Good grief! I can't even believe it! :0

I must be a very sick person...I thought the part about the bunny squashed by a car in the street was kind of funny.

Marilyn said...

Hey-FYI-I heard bunny poop makes AWESOME compost......(just a suggestion)

Marilyn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Dillon 6 said...

better bunnies than rats, my friend, which is what WE had last summer. Not in the sheer horrendous numbers you're talking about, but 3 of them chose our crawl space to call home...it made my skin crawl, and it drove our dog to the brink of insanity.

Good luck!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi. Friendly lurker here.

A man in our old neighborhood had the BEST homegrown produce on the block. Despite a RAGING bunny population. I finally broke down and asked him how he did it.

The answer:

Human Hair.

Not a joke. It totally works.

Jillybean said...

Peter Rabbit was one of my son's favorite books when he was little. I read it about 80 billion times before he grew out of it. I never thought of looking at the story from Mr. McGregor's point of view. After reading this post, he seems less insane. I don't feel so sorry for Peter anymore.

Naughty bunnies.

I'm surprised that you didn't mention the rabbit poop. That many rabbits has got to be creating an overabundance of the stuff.

Super Happy Girl said...

Rebecca: Get back here and asplain' yourself.
Human Hair? Like, with the uman attached to it or what?

Melissa said...

Perhaps you should just let your dog dig and run free... destroying bunnies and everything else in it's path... just a thought
Good luck!

Dave said...

good thing you got rid of your bunny problem this year...

oh wait