Does cat hair deter rabbits in the garden? Life offers few guarantees, but this hack has many fans and fills a real need. Although rabbits take a toll on veggie gardens, most of us hesitate to put out anything toxic – like poison, or deadly – like snap-traps. After all, they are bunnies just trying to get a meal. But how to exclude them…kindly?
I have done some research on how to keep rabbits out of the garden. The idea behind using cat hair goes like this: Since a cat would like to make a meal of the rabbit, the rabbit smells the cat hair in your garden and will head quickly toward someone else’s lettuce patch.
And the crazy thing is – it seems to work! Follow along to learn more about this gardening trick.
Rabbits in the Garden
I used to think that rabbits in the garden were a blessing. They are cute and happy. They chow down young weeds in my yard and fertilize the soil with their poop. This positive impression lasted until the day the bunnies decimated my garden, taking out the usual suspects like lettuce and spinach, but also my young broccoli plants, pansies and marigolds. Rabbits like to eat tender young plants and many of the veggies we also enjoy. (A health and safety reminder to not eat veggies that have been nibbled on by animals).
Deterring Hungry Rabbits
The solutions proposed on the Internet range from fencing to traps to poisons, but each one has issues for me. It’s not hard for a rabbit to dig under fencing, and where to release a trapped bunny? Poisons are completely out of the question for me, so I turned to deterrents.
The first suggestion was to sprinkle dried blood or coyote, fox, or wolf urine around the edges of the garden. These materials aren't ethically produced and somewhat icky to apply, so I won't use them.
Our gardening editors have had success deterring rabbits with Liquid Fence deer and rabbit repellent which can be found on Amazon. But if you have access to cat hair, you might try a multi-pronged approach using this natural deterrent alongside a heavier duty one.
How to Use Cat Hair to Deter Rabbits
Many gardeners swear that putting cat hair around the garden could stop rabbits and other small, pesky animals from hanging around in the garden. I like this simple idea. If you have a cat, getting cat hair isn’t difficult. It’s free, natural, easy and safe. If, like me, you don’t have a cat, cat hair isn’t hard to obtain from a feline-loving friend.
Cat hair is light enough to get blown into the next county with even a slight breeze. So you’ll need to take steps to keep it in place. For example, tuck the hair inside the rim of container plants or place it into nylon stockings and line the garden with them.
You can also try utilizing plants that rabbits don't like for an extra layer of natural bunny defense in your yard.
Is Cat Hair an Effective Deterrent?
Will cat hair deter squirrels? Will it deter rabbits? This is one of those claims that have not been tested in scientific studies, so all we have is anecdotal experiences. But the theory makes sense – both rabbits and squirrels would leave the yard in a hurry if cats appeared, so wouldn’t cat hair have the same effect?
In my experience, cat hair seems to keep most rabbits out of my garden in France, but it has no effect at all on squirrels. Other people have had different experiences, some reporting that cat hair scares off rabbits, squirrels, and even moles, others saying that the hair had no effect at all.
Your best bet is to try it yourself. This is especially easy if you have a cat. We’d love to hear about your own experiences so drop us a line.
