The most reliable way to get rid of rabbits living under your deck is to wait until they leave to forage, then seal the space with buried hardware cloth so they can’t return. Rabbits sheltering under a deck aren’t burrowing deep like groundhogs. Cottontails use shallow depressions or existing gaps for cover, which makes physical exclusion straightforward once you understand the timing and technique.
Why Rabbits Chose Your Deck
Cottontail rabbits don’t build complex underground warrens. They look for ready-made shelter: brush piles, dense shrubs, or the gap beneath a raised deck. Your deck offers overhead protection from hawks and owls, shade in summer, and wind cover in winter. If you’ve recently lost a dog, removed landscaping, or let vegetation grow up around the deck’s perimeter, that likely opened the door. Rabbits are creatures of habit and will return to the same shelter year after year once they feel safe.
Common signs of rabbits under your deck include multiple shallow dugouts at entry points, scattered droppings (small round pellets about the size of a pea), chewed bark on nearby shrubs, and worn trails through the grass leading to and from the deck’s edges. You may also notice them at dawn and dusk, their peak activity times.
Check for Baby Rabbits First
Before you seal anything, you need to confirm there aren’t kits (baby rabbits) trapped inside. Cottontails produce multiple litters from spring through fall, so nesting season is long. Kits open their eyes at about one week old and start nibbling grass outside the nest by two to three weeks. A young rabbit roughly the size of a softball, around four to five inches long, with open eyes and upright ears is old enough to survive on its own.
If you find a nest with smaller, eyes-closed kits, wait. Within three weeks they’ll be mobile enough to leave. Sealing the deck while helpless babies are inside means they’ll die there, creating an odor problem and an unnecessary cruelty. Monitor the entry points for a few days at dawn and dusk. Once you’re confident only adults are using the space and no nest is active, you can move forward.
Install an L-Shaped Hardware Cloth Barrier
Physical exclusion is the only permanent fix. Repellents wash away, traps catch one rabbit at a time, and new rabbits will move in if the space stays open. A buried hardware cloth barrier stops all of them.
Materials You Need
- 1/2-inch galvanized hardware cloth for the main barrier. This gauge is strong enough to resist chewing and hold its shape against larger animals like skunks.
- 1/4-inch hardware cloth (optional) as a second layer if you also want to exclude mice and snakes. The heavier 1/2-inch mesh gives the finer mesh structural support.
- Landscape staples or screws with washers to fasten the cloth to the deck frame.
- A shovel, spray paint, and a plastic tarp for trenching.
Installation Steps
Measure 1.5 feet out from the base of your deck and mark a digging line with spray paint all the way around the perimeter. Lay plastic sheeting on the ground alongside your trench line for faster cleanup. Dig a trench about 4 inches deep and 1.5 feet wide, running outward from the structure.
Cut your hardware cloth so it’s tall enough to reach from the bottom of the deck frame down into the trench and then extend outward along the trench floor, forming an L shape. The vertical portion attaches to the deck frame. The horizontal foot of the L lies flat in the trench, pointing away from the deck. This is the critical part: if a rabbit tries to dig at the base of the barrier, it hits the buried horizontal mesh and can’t get through.
Make sure the outer edge of the buried cloth angles slightly downward or lies flat. If it angles upward, animals can dig beneath the entire barrier and you’ll have to start over. Fasten the top edge securely to the deck’s frame or posts. Backfill the trench and tamp the soil down firmly.
One-Way Door Option
If you’re not sure all the rabbits have left, install the barrier but leave one opening fitted with a one-way exclusion door. This lets rabbits exit but prevents re-entry. After a week with no signs of activity, remove the door and seal the final gap with hardware cloth.
Live Trapping as a Short-Term Tool
If you need rabbits out quickly, live traps can help, but they won’t solve the problem alone. New rabbits will find the same shelter unless you seal it.
Use a cage trap measuring roughly 6 by 6 by 24 inches, available at most farm supply and hardware stores. Place the trap directly along the trails rabbits are already using, near visible tracks or chew marks. Bait with lettuce, apple slices, carrots, or corn. Position some bait at the entrance where the rabbit can see it, with the rest deeper inside, past the trigger mechanism.
Check traps every day. Leaving a rabbit in a trap too long causes serious stress and can kill it in hot weather. When you catch the first rabbit, leave it briefly so its scent attracts others, but don’t let it sit for hours. Before relocating any rabbits, check your local wildlife regulations. Many states restrict where you can release wild animals, and some require a permit for trapping. Your county extension office or state wildlife agency can clarify the rules in your area.
Why Repellents and Ultrasonic Devices Fall Short
Scent-based repellents like blood meal, hot pepper sprays, and predator urine can make an area temporarily less appealing, but they have real limitations. Blood meal works by mimicking the smell of a predator kill. In practice, rain, irrigation, and time quickly reduce its effectiveness, requiring reapplication after every watering or storm. In areas with a high rabbit population, rabbits often acclimate to the smell, especially when food is scarce and the shelter is too good to abandon. Blood meal also dumps nitrogen into your soil (it’s essentially a 12-0-0 or 13-0-0 fertilizer), which can burn plants or cause excessive leafy growth if you over-apply it.
Ultrasonic deterrent devices are even less effective. Although rabbits can hear frequencies up to about 49 kHz, the science behind ultrasonic pest repellers is weak. Pest control professionals consistently report they don’t work. One longtime pest control technician put it bluntly: if ultrasonic devices worked, professionals would use them. Save your money.
If you want to use a repellent, treat it as a temporary bridge while you install hardware cloth, not as a standalone solution.
Make Your Yard Less Inviting
Once the deck is sealed, reduce the chances rabbits set up camp somewhere else on your property. Clear brush piles, weed patches, stone piles, and other ground-level debris that provide cover. Trim low-hanging shrubs so there’s open space at ground level, which makes rabbits feel exposed to predators. Keep grass mowed short near structures.
If you have a vegetable garden, that’s likely part of the draw. A simple fence of 1-inch chicken wire, about 2 feet tall with the bottom buried a few inches, will protect garden beds without major expense. Rabbits rarely jump higher than 2 feet, so the fence doesn’t need to be tall.
Dogs are a remarkably effective long-term deterrent. Many people notice rabbit problems starting only after a dog passes away or stops spending time in the yard. Even the lingering scent of a dog using the yard regularly is enough to keep most cottontails at a distance. If you have a dog, letting it patrol the yard freely during the day can prevent rabbits from ever getting comfortable enough to nest.