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Garden Pests
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Rabbit Quotes
"Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit"
"Don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden. Your Father had an accident there. He was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor"
"Rabbits have a habit of coming for breakfast and staying for lunch. Now there's one leaf instead of a bunch"
"The crafty rabbit has three different entrances to its lair"
"The rabbit has a charming face. Its private life is a disgrace. I really dare not name to you the awful things that rabbits do"
"The world has different owners at sunrise. Even your own garden does not belong to you. Rabbits and blackbirds have the lawns, a tortoise-shell cat who never appears in daytime patrols the brick walls and a golden-tailed pheasant glints his way through the iris spears."
"Winston Churchill is always expecting rabbits to come out of an empty hat"
"The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbet; watch the roots."
"On every stem, on every leaf, and at the root of everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part."
Garden Pests
Rabbits – The Damage They Do
Rabbits are attractive animals, so much so that many children like to keep them as pets.
They win our support, even when they are going about their natural destructive behaviour, hence the enduring popularity of Beatrix Potter's children's books that feature Peter Rabbit as the "hero".
They may appear to be gentle furry attractive creatures but when they enter your garden as uninvited guests, they will help themselves to anything that takes their fancy.
In reality, rabbits can multiply very quickly and are capable of causing extensive damage in the garden.
If small numbers of rabbits start to visit your vegetable plot, you are likely to notice that the ends of rows are being nibbled away. That's the time to act because once they invade in significant numbers, nothing will be safe. They will eat almost any green vegetation as soon as it appears above ground.
They love vegetable plants such as carrots, lettuce, beans and peas, which are often the mainstay of vegetable gardeners and allotment keepers. However, they are also partial to many ornamental plants, flowers and grasses.
Rabbits can damage much larger plants. So, for example, they enjoy gnawing away at the bark of young trees, both ornamental and fruit trees. If this is allowed to progress, of course, they are perfectly capable of killing the tree.
Plants are most at risk from attack by rabbits when they are young and succulent. They tend to be less attractive once plants have grown beyond the seedling stage and when the bark of trees has grown to be much tougher.
In addition to destroying plant life, rabbits can also cause erosion by their tunnelling habits, which may be for the purpose of making a home or to gain access to areas that they cannot reach above ground.
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