Why Wild Rabbits Kill Outdoor Grass
Wild rabbits spend their entire lives on an area of 10 acres or less. If your yard is in a suitable area, you may have one or more wild rabbit families living, eating, urinating and generally causing a nuisance on your lawn. Rabbits destroy lawns in several different ways, relying on grass for most of their needs.
Lush, green grass provides a perfect grazing source for rabbits. Rabbits require around 2,200 kilocalories of food per kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of weight per day during their formative and adult years and, according to Dr. JoAnne Murray, director of Taught Postgraduate Programmes at the University of Edinburgh, there are about four calories in an ounce of standard turfgrass. That’s a lot of grass to go through, especially when there are multiple rabbits grazing on the same lawn. Between flowers, vegetables, woody matter and your yard grass, rabbits can decimate an area and completely kill off a yard of outdoor grass if hungry enough. While rabbits like variety in their diet, they will eat grass exclusively if other feedstuff is unavailable.
Rabbits rely on grass and weeds for shelter. They create dens called forms in which they sleep and hide their young. These shelters also protect rabbits from inclement weather and predation by other animals. By creating these forms, rabbits bend the grass out of position and sometimes break the blades. Additionally, they may import grass from other spots in the yard and mat down or thatch the grass into a desirable form. All of this damages outdoor grass sources.
Rabbit urine, like dog urine or cat urine, scalds grass. Rabbits can produce up to six litters a year of young, with five to six babies per litter, all in your yard. Assuming two adult rabbits and 30 young rabbits in a year on a 10-acre area, the amount of urine produced is astounding, and rabbits are creatures of habit when it comes to their hygiene routines. When rabbits urinate on the same spot over and over again, the grass in that area loses nutrients and dies back, leaving bald patches and bare spots.
Because of their prolific nature, there are few prevention methods that work. Even hunting and humane measures like live trapping are only temporary when there’s a rabbit problem in your yard. To solve a rabbit problem, make your yard as inhospitable as possible. Clear brush piles and debris where rabbits can hide. Fence off woody stems to about 20 inches above ground and place chicken wire around any vegetables or flower gardens in your yard.
- Clinical Textbook for Veterinary Technicians; Joanna M. Bassert and Dennis McCurnin
- JoAnne Murray, PhD, Director of Taught Postgraduate Programmes, The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh; Edinburgh, Scotland
- UC IPM Online: Rabbits
- Arizona State Extension Office: Critter Corner -- Cottontail Rabbits
- University of Wisconsin: Protecting Gardens and Landscape Plantings From Rabbits
- eXtension.org: Choosing a Diet for Your Companion Rabbit
Elizabeth Tumbarello has been writing since 2006, with her work appearing on various websites. She is an animal lover who volunteers with her local Humane Society. Tumbarello attended Hocking College and is pursuing her Associate of Applied Science in veterinary technology from San Juan College.