Garden Gnome Said:

That's one smart rabbit! I know where you are coming from. We have a
healthy wild rabbit population and I don't like the idea of fencing.
Mothballs scattered around the perimeter of the garden help keep them out
of your garden. If you can't tolerate the smell of mothballs a motion
activated sprayer is a great deterrant. CritterRidder is a product you
can use that lasts 30 days even in rain and it has no smell. A cheaper
solution is a cayenne pepper/powdered pepper mix but I don't like to use
that because it does harm the animal. Check for and remove other souces
of food such as bird feeders. I have 3 bird feeders, one filled with a
corn mix. The starlings discovered it so there was a mess under the
feeder. I didn't think much about it until I had to chase 2 wild rabbits
out from under it. Obviously they like corn! I temporarily changed the
seed to niger seed to discourage the starlings and rabbits. So far that
approach has works but niger seed is expensive so I'm going to try
safflower seed. Another trick is to remove hiding spots like wood piles.
Traps are surprisingly ineffective for rabbits according to our pest
removal service. The reason they are ineffective is the rabbit sees no
need to go into the trap when surrounded by a vegetable buffet A cat
is rather effective as are some dogs but that won't be much help if you
don't want a pet. I have raised beds so tried a 2' high temporay fencing
of chicken wire around one bed. It has been very effective. I don't like
the looks of it though so I'm using methods mentioned above. DH thinks a
pellet gun would be effective as well except I'd likely take out every
neighbour and windows for miles around while the rabbits sat there
laughing at me so that isn't an option.

BTW, I know we have a lot of rabbits. We got a late snow and the yard and
gardens were covered with rabbit prints. I posted a picture on my
websites below.

Garden Gnome

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Ken Replied:

I probably should have mentioned in my original post, that the garden is 70'
X 200', so measures such as pepper or more fencing will require a good deal
of material, hence a good deal of expense.
More than anything, this post was sharing my amazement at how clever the
critters are getting!
Take Care All, Ken.