MIDDLETOWN - I have been battling rabbits ever since I moved to Cromwell. They have caused all kinds of damage, but last year it was just too much! I came home to what must have been a rabbit convention! My wildflower garden was decimated. Daisies were eaten right down to the ground, not to mention coreopsis, yarrow, asters, hollyhocks and even the grasses. Some of my bushes were also chewed. I’m surrounded by woods and fields--surely there are enough wild plants they like and could eat, but apparently not.

       I recently had a conversation as to what to do with them. But since this is a gardening article and not cooking article, I won’t go any further with that discussion.

       There are many theories and wives’ tales out there. One of my favorite is marigolds. They do not keep anything away, including rabbits. They have a distinctive odor and that’s it. The only marigolds I know that do some good in the garden are ground control marigolds, which work on root-knot nematodes. They are microscopic parasites that feed on plant roots. If marigolds truly worked on rabbits, I’d have a five-foot wide band of them around my entire yard.

       Coyote urine is another theory. I have real coyotes so if it worked there wouldn’t be any rabbits for miles. I have also been told to get a dog. I have three and one weighs 136 pounds. Yes, they are hunters. They actually caught a bunny one night and I thought that would teach the rest a lesson. Two weeks later they were hot on the trail of another fuzzy tail, which quickly escaped under the fence gate.

       I have used hot pepper wax spray and that worked okay. I had to respray every couple of weeks or when it rained. I think it was more physiological because my evil side got the best of me where I enjoyed the thought of those creatures running around looking for something to drink and now!

       I tried moth balls, thinking the smell would be a deterrent. How could anything with a nose like that not be disgusted and want nothing to do with any plant nearby? It didn’t work. They walked right by and munched anyway. It was more of a deterrent for me because I couldn’t take the smell.

       I then thought, they do frighten easy, what about mouse traps? Now before I get nasty notes, I turned them upside down so they set them off but didn’t get their feet trapped. It sort of worked but I would have to surround every plant, which isn’t too practical.

       I do have a fence around my yard. We realized the rabbits were either getting in at the gates or through the chain link, (is that even possible?). So we had to start filling in the holes where we thought they could get in with chicken wire.

       I had to finally resign myself to the fact that I would have to put small wire enclosures around the tastiest plants and not plastic because they chewed right through that.