Tag Archives: rabbits in the yard

Rabbits in the Yard

rabbit removal

I work for an organization that provides and maintains homes for people who are working hard to transition to life outside a mental health facility, and we have rabbits in the yard of one of our homes.  This home is located just off a busy street in a fairly rural neighborhood, and houses six female guests at a time.  Normally, we have a difficult time finding good properties in areas where the city doesn’t fight us on zoning issues.  For the sake of our clients, we try to be as discreet as possible, but sometimes when neighbors find out who we are and who intends on moving in, we face all kinds of opposition.

 

But, this property was different.  We were contacted by the previous owner, who specifically wanted to sell to us.  He said it had been his family’s home for twenty-five years, and he’d made all kinds of improvements to it and updated the bathrooms and kitchen.  His son had struggled with a mental health problem for years, but through perseverance and the efforts of organizations like ours, he was living a happy and healthy life with a family and a steady job.  When we did our preliminary investigations, we found the property was perfect.  It had enough rooms to transfer into bedrooms and one large day room.  Its kitchen was large enough for the needs of our clients.  And, it was on a large property that would allow house guests to meet outside, or stroll around on the premises.  In addition, the neighbors were well-aware of who we are and what we do, and they welcomed us with open arms.  They’d known the previous owner’s son, too, and loved him.

 

It’s been one of our most successful locations, until one of the guests tripped over a trench dug on the side of the house and twisted her ankle.  I inspected the property myself, and spoke with the guests.  Several guests admitted to having seen rabbits in the yard, poking their heads out of the trench, nibbling on the grass.  One of our employees at the home had even stumbled across a rabbit nest in the yard, a small depression in the grass, in which three tiny little rabbits huddled and waited for their mama to return.

 

As a property manager, I was frustrated that no one had brought this to our attention before now.  I understand the guests loved their little friends, but those adorable animals beget a lot more adorable little animals, and they can chew, and dig, and destroy.  Plus, rabbits in the yard might be attractive to other wild animals, like feral cats or raccoons.

 

So, much to the chagrin of our guests and employees, we need to get the rabbits out of the yard.  Fortunately, we’ve worked with Allstate Animal Control before, and we know they do a great job.

 

 

How To Get Rid Of Rabbits

Rabbit
Rabbit by a tree.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

I’d just enjoyed a weekend camping trip up in the mountains, thoughts of how to get rid of rabbits far from my mind.  Some people hate camping in the snow, but I love the quiet.  I love feeling like I can just get away from it all for a little while and escape from my everyday worries.  Worries like the rabbits.

I love wildlife, at home and in the woods.  At home, we have a bird feeder and my wife and the kids like to keep track of all the different species of birds come by our house.  Of course, the bird seed attracts all kinds of squirrels and chipmunks and we just watch them play outside our window.  Since it’s not as cold in our neighborhood as it is up in the mountains, there’s still a lot of wildlife activity we can enjoy from the warmth and comfort of our home.  I’ve even gotten a couple of great pictures of animals playing just in our backyard.

Last year, my youngest daughter saw a rabbit in our backyard and got really excited.  We got online and figured out it was a cottontail, which is pretty common around here.  The kids named it “CAB” for “cute as a button.”  What can I say?  The kids have their own logic, right?  My wife noticed there were actually a few rabbits that had taken a liking to our yard, and the kids tried to name each one of them.

But, the rabbits stopped being cute as time went on.  I had some young fruit trees I’d planted, and I found gnaw marks on the lower branches and around the trunk.  One of the fruit trees died.  Shrubs, tulip bulbs and my wife’s herb garden were all chewed up and eaten away.  Rabbit droppings were all over the yard, to the point where we couldn’t let the kids just go out and play whenever they wanted.  I wanted to clean it up before they went out there, to prevent them getting sick from touching or playing around the rabbit droppings.  Then, the digging.  Shallow nests were dug up against the back shed and scattered around the yard.  I found a lot of droppings under the stairs leading up to the deck, and wondered where the rabbits were nesting under there.  I stopped enjoying my yard, because all I saw were pests and the damage they were causing.  It was getting to be a real problem, so I needed to figure out how to get rid of rabbits, and fast.  I took the weekend off to camp, and decided to work on the problem when I got home.

I’d unloaded the camping gear from the truck and was inside enjoying dinner with the family when I heard a bump, scrape coming from outside.  Sighing, I knew it had to be the rabbits.  Back to reality, I thought, and decided to call a professional to come out to get rid of the rabbits for me.