Mothballs will not reliably keep rabbits away, and using them outdoors for this purpose is illegal in the United States. Mothballs are EPA-regulated pesticides approved only for killing clothes moths and fabric pests in enclosed spaces. Scattering them in your yard or garden to repel rabbits violates federal pesticide law and poses real risks to children, pets, and soil health. The good news is that several proven methods actually do work.
Why Mothballs Don’t Work on Rabbits
Mothballs contain either naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene, chemicals designed to produce fumes that kill moths in sealed containers like garment bags or storage trunks. Outdoors, those fumes dissipate quickly into open air, dropping to concentrations far too low to bother a rabbit. The naphthalene in mothballs has an environmental half-life of less than one day in air, meaning the smell fades fast once exposed to wind and sunlight.
Even if you piled enough mothballs around your garden to maintain a strong odor, rabbits are not particularly sensitive to the smell. The University of Florida’s extension service specifically notes that people mistakenly believe mothballs can repel nuisance wildlife, but the products are neither designed nor effective for that use.
Legal and Safety Risks of Outdoor Use
Every mothball product sold legally in the U.S. carries a label specifying exactly where and how it can be used. Using mothballs in any way not described on that label is a violation of federal pesticide law. The National Pesticide Information Center warns that outdoor use can harm children, pets, and other animals, and can contaminate soil, plants, and water.
Naphthalene can persist in soil for over 80 days, and plants may absorb it through their roots. If you’re scattering mothballs in a vegetable garden, you could be introducing a toxic compound directly into the food you’re growing. Dogs and cats that encounter mothballs outdoors are at particular risk. Naphthalene ingestion has caused a serious blood disorder called hemolytic anemia in dogs, while paradichlorobenzene ingestion has triggered vomiting and trembling. A single mothball weighs about 5 grams, and it doesn’t take many to reach a harmful dose in a small pet. Rabbits themselves cannot vomit, so a wild rabbit that ate a mothball would have no way to expel it.
What Actually Keeps Rabbits Out
Fencing is the single most effective way to protect a garden from rabbits. A chicken wire fence just two feet tall will stop cottontail rabbits, the species responsible for most garden damage in North America. For jackrabbits, you need three feet. Bury the bottom of the fence about four inches underground, or flare it outward at ground level and stake it down, to prevent rabbits from digging underneath. A mesh size of two by three inches or smaller will exclude adult rabbits.
This doesn’t have to be expensive or permanent. A simple roll of chicken wire and a few garden stakes can protect a raised bed for an entire growing season. If you already have a yard fence, adding a strip of fine mesh along the bottom is often enough.
Rabbit-Resistant Plants
Another strategy is choosing plants that rabbits naturally avoid. Rabbits tend to skip anything strongly aromatic, fuzzy-textured, or toxic to them. Penn State Extension maintains a list of rabbit-resistant species that includes many attractive, easy-to-grow options:
- Herbs and aromatics: Lavender, thyme, and wormwood all have strong scents rabbits dislike.
- Textured plants: Lamb’s ears, with its soft fuzzy leaves, and sea holly, with its spiny foliage, are rarely browsed.
- Flowering perennials: Blanket flower, butterfly weed, yarrow, red-hot poker, and yucca all resist rabbit damage well.
- Drought-tolerant options: Euphorbia, lavender cotton, blue flax, and penstemon thrive in dry conditions and stay off the rabbit menu.
Planting a border of these species around more vulnerable crops like lettuce, beans, or tulips can reduce rabbit interest in the area. It’s not foolproof (a hungry enough rabbit will eat almost anything), but it meaningfully lowers the damage.
Other Deterrents Worth Trying
Commercial rabbit repellent sprays are available at most garden centers. These typically use ingredients like dried blood, garlic oil, or capsaicin to make plants taste or smell unappealing. They need reapplication after rain and are best used alongside fencing rather than as a standalone solution.
Habitat modification also helps. Rabbits are prey animals that depend on cover for safety. Removing brush piles, tall grass, and dense ground-level vegetation near your garden takes away the hiding spots rabbits need to feel comfortable feeding. If there’s nowhere to bolt to when a hawk flies over, rabbits are far less likely to linger in the open near your plants.