Remember those cute little bunnies that you or your classmates had as pets back in grade school? Too far back to remember? Well perhaps your children or your neighbor's children had pet rabbits. If your rose garden has been invaded by hares or rabbits, it isn't likely that you'll ever again see these creatures as "cute."
My rose garden in the California low desert was visited daily by a number of rabbits, but the damage to my roses was fortunately minimal. So the sight of rabbits in my new garden in the high desert wasn't a cause for great alarm. Yes, there were a lot more rabbits here, but their nibbling was confined to the lowest leaves on the roses they could reach, and it didn't appear that they could tackle the height of pots 15-gallons in size or larger.
Having been lulled into a false sense of well being during the first month or so after the move, I was stunned to go out among the roses one morning only to encounter destruction beyond anything I could have imagined over one short night. Could the rabbits have genetically mutated into a race of super rabbits? Had deer suddenly appeared out of nowhere and enjoyed the feast of all feasts? And then I saw first one and then a second. My rose garden had been invade by – - kangaroos! Hallucinations? Just a very bad dream? Neither. Enter the Blacktail Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus)!
There are a number of rabbits that call our high desert home, most notably Audobon's (Desert) Cottontail (Sylvilagus audoboni) and the Brush Rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani). But these larger than life creatures that were hopping high into the air while running faster than speeding bullets were clearly not rabbits. They were kangaroos, or so it looked to this uninformed observer. If you've not had a visit to your garden by the Blacktail Jackrabbit, or Lepus californicus, consider yourself fortunate indeed.
The following is a description of the Black-tailed Jackrabbit from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's web site:
"Black-tailed jackrabbits are tremendous leapers, able to jump more than 6m (nearly 20 ft) horizontally. They live in some of the hottest and driest regions of the continent, can survive on poor-quality foods, and get most or all of the water they need from their food. Where they can, they eat green vegetation, but they can survive in parts of the Southwest where creosote-bush forms a large part of their diet. They cope with extreme heat by lowering their metabolism and resting in the shade during the day, which conserves water. They get rid of extra salt through their urine, and blood flows close to the skin in their enormous ears, a cooling mechanism. Although mostly nocturnal and solitary, large groups sometimes form near a good food supply. With their typically high reproductive output, black-tails can be agricultural pests, and there were periods in the 1800s and 1900s when aggressive rabbit drives herded and destroyed 5,000-6,000 animal in a single day. In spite of this, they are quite common and widespread."
Further research indicated that jackrabbits eat anything from grasses, leaves and twigs to sagebrush and cacti. The thorns of the rose bush were therefore of no concern. And one statistic pointed out that fifteen jackrabbits can eat as much as a full-grown cow in one day. (www.blueplanetbiomes.org/jackrabbit.htm). So it's not surprising that just a few of these animals devoured most or all of the foliage on countless rose bushes during the span of only one short night.
Burkhard (Grumpy)
Lilian Austin x Seedling 1078
My seven dwarfs (polyanthas), which I nurtured and babied were nearly decimated. What had been lush, full foliage on plants that were roughly 4 ft. high by 4 ft. wide were chewed mercilessly.
Fortunately, most of the roses will recover, but a few of my seedlings weren't as lucky. This Lilian Austin seedling must have been mighty tasty, for not a morsel was spared, including the roots:
Having already moved close to 4,000 roses to their new home, it was clear that a plan of action was needed and needed quickly. Thank goodness for a wonderful neighbor. My neighbor had already fought the battle of the kangaroo-like jackrabbits and came to my rescue. To try to minimize further damage while implementing what will hopefully be a long-term solution to the problem, he suggested a product called Bobbex-R, manufactured by the Bobbex Company, a concern that manufactures and sells animal repellents. http://www.bobbex.com/products.htm
If you have a problem with rabbits or hares and a relatively small area to control, I strongly recommend this organic concoction, which is touted as a repellant for rabbits, squirrels, voles, chipmunks and groundhogs. Its only major drawback is its price – it isn't cheap – hence my comment that it would be fine for a small area with relatively few plants. My neighbor let me have what was left of his Bobbex-R so that I could spray that evening, and the next morning we made a dash for the nearest garden center that carries this product and then sat down to map out a more permanent plan of attack.
My five-acre property came with a chain-link perimeter fence, but it was quite easy for small animals to squeeze through underneath the fence or, if small enough, even between the links. A number of rose-growing friends had already recommended that I fortify the perimeter fence with hardware cloth, both below the ground and part way up the fence, and my neighbor's recommendation was similar.
100 ft. rolls of harware cloth
The suggested specifications were: Galvanized hardware cloth ¼" x ¼" mesh, 3 ft. high by as long a roll as we could find, preferably 100 ft. We had roughly 2,000 linear feet to secure, and the fewer splices that were necessary, the better. Finding !" mesh proved to be more difficult than anticipated, particularly in any quantity, but thanks to the internet we managed to find the quantity we needed – with a few 50 ft. rolls available for immediate use from a supplier in the next town. We were able to obtain most of the balance in 100 ft. rolls by driving to the Los Angeles area, along with the "hog rings" which are used to secure attach the hardware cloth to the existing fence.
My angel from heaven neighbor just happened to have all of the required tools and, having installed similar material on his property, albeit on a smaller scale, he offered his services, as well as his wife's, so that we could complete the installation as quickly as possible.
The first task was to dig a trench along the entire 2,000 feet of fence, within which the bottom foot of hardware cloth would be buried.
The bottom foot of hardware cloth was placed in the trench and the trench then filled in with dirt.
Next, the above-ground portion of hardware cloth was attached to the fence using the hog rings, and the final result looked like this.
With the continued help of my new friend next door, we've been trapping rabbits and releasing them outside the front gate (the gate is kept closed at all times and it too has a hardware cloth barrier to prevent the entry of unwanted guests). And not a hare has been seen since the hardware cloth went up. May they continue to eat to their hearts' content – somewhere else!
All photos by the author unless otherwise indicated.