Most of the common critters scampering around your yard all year make themselves scarce by November. Squirrels are hunkered down with their nut stashes. Chipmunks are hibernating in their secluded shelters. Even most birds fly disappear. Winter makes your yard a quieter, more animal-free place. At least… except for the rabbits. Truthfully, rabbits aren’t any more active in winter than they are any other time of year. They’re not any less active either, however. If anything, you’ll notice rabbits more now than you did during the summer. The snow makes it much easier to notice certain… signs that they’re around. Rabbits can be annoying, disruptive, and destructive in your yard, even in winter. Here are the best ways to keep them away.
Fence Off Food
Rabbits never hibernate during winter, which means they have to keep eating all year. Unfortunately for them, rabbit’s usual food sources tend to become very scarce in winter. In order to stay healthy, rabbits have to adjust their usual diet during cold months. Instead of feeding on grass, clover, and berries, rabbits have to a lot less picky. Usually, they spend winter eating woody plant parts like twigs and stems, buds, or even bark. Of course, just because rabbits can eat tree bark doesn’t mean they want to. Would you? If you keep decorative perennial plants, they’ll become a favorite snack for cold and hungry rabbits this winter. Likewise, virtually any evergreen trees or shrubs can provide much-needed sustenance to rabbit families. Consider installing wire mesh fencing around any trees, shrubs, or other plants in your yard. Keep about a foot of space between the plants and the fence. Make sure the mesh extends a couple inches underground, too, so rabbits don’t dig under it.
Clear The Clutter
When we said rabbits aren’t picky during winter, we really weren’t kidding. When rabbits forage for food in winter, they’ll snack on virtually anything they can find. Often, they’ll wind their way from snack to snack until they’ve eaten their fill. The more abundant the food source, the more attractive the area. Rabbits often snack on fallen twigs, branches, berries, or birdseed during snowy winter days. All that matters is that it’s close, accessible, and safe to eat. You may not even notice, but all kinds of stuff tends to accumulate in your yard, even during winter. Winds blow twigs, dead leaves, fallen nuts, and all kinds of other stuff around constantly. Rabbits can and will sustain themselves on all of this random detritus if you give them half a chance. They’re particularly grateful for birdfeeders that leak their seed onto the ground. Clearing away cluttering from your yard periodically makes your property much less rabbit-friendly.Seal Off Shelters
After food, the first thing rabbits look for in winter is shelter. During winter, a lot of the natural cover rabbits use to move around naturally disappears. Rabbits become considerably more exposed as they move from place to place, making them vulnerable to predators. Even though their fur does a pretty good job of insulating them, rabbits also tend to get cold. For both reasons, whenever rabbits aren’t out eating, they like to retreat to hiding places. The more permanent, secluded, and inaccessible the hiding place, the better it suits a rabbit’s purposes. Obviously, that means they’re quite attracted to permanent structures like your home, deck, porch, or shed. Rabbits frequently spend winters hunkered down beneath people’s sheds, in small crevices or holes. They’ll even dig their own miniature burrows through snow if they have to. If rabbits can’t use your buildings for shelter, your yard becomes far less attractive to the little rascals.
