Week of the Lepus

We have never had many bunnies near us, the fox, coyotes, hawks, and owls have dined on them over the years. The first week of June I did see a small bunny running through the back yard and was happy to see they were making a come back, and then our garden was planted. At first we would just see him scamper away when we went to water the garden. Then we noticed a leaf was missing from a pumpkin plant that just sprouted, a squash blossom was gone, and then two entire pumpkin plants went missing. We had to face the harsh reality that we were witnessing a remake of 'Night of the Lepus'*. I started to imagine that the situation was escalating to the point that they would attack our neighbor's dog, or we would find the partially eaten carcasses of deer and bear behind our house. 

It was time to take action. We added hardware cloth fencing around the small plants, I made a concoction of cayenne pepper/garlic/dish soap per instruction from the internet.

The promise of a bountiful harvest 

The first sign of impending doom.

Bunny proofing

If this works we will have the crop that we had hoped for, albeit with crops infused with garlic and pepper. 

* Night of the Lepus takes place in Arizona where there is a herd of carnivorous bunnies (cottontails) that eat cattle and people. It's a shlocky and campy movie (I like shlocky and campy).