Irish Spring - I think this might actually work!

[l008com]

I'm heard that if you put irish spring soap in your "garden", it keeps rabbits away. I'm in MA, we are infested with rabbits. And I don't have enough screen to put it around EVERY plant I want to save.

So I bought a 12 pack of irish spring. Regular old bars of soap. Each bar was in an individual box, and those boxes were shrinkwrapped in plastic. As soon as I got home and cut the shrinkwrap, my WHOLE HOUSE smells like soap! And it has for days! And I haven't opened a single individual package yet!

I put them all in a 5 gallon bucket, I put the cover on the bucket. 3 days later, my house still smells like soap.

This stuff smells SO strong, I now actually think this might keep rabbits away!

So my question is for anyone thats ever used this stuff as rabbit repellant, whats the best method? One whole bar by each plant (sunflowers)? Cut into small pieces and scatter around? Cut into large pieces and scatter around... but spaced out a bit more?

I have 10 giant sunflowers in small pots, each about 18" tall - they WILL be giant that is, unless some little furry assholes eat them. I have three primary plants I planted a while ago and they're getting really big! These will be round two, 5 planted out front and 5 planted out back. This will be really cool if the soap works!

 

[Gemma]

I love the smell of Irish Spring!
I've never used soap as a repellent, I have no idea if it would work, but I do use dish soap as insecticide wash so I have to wonder if Irish Spring dissolved in the soil could have a negative effect on the microbes?

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Hear its good for mice also. We have cut up bars in the Trailer just in case. Cheap enough.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Google says;
"Grated Soap Shavings: Use a cheese grater to create small shavings and scatter them around garden beds, along the perimeter, or mixed into mulch. This creates a ground-level scent barrier effective against rabbits, mice, and slugs "
I thought it might be good against the badger that had all my tomatoes and dug up various places, but I think we must import it from the US, it's £5 a bar here when you buy multipacks, sure I can find something smelly cheaper than that.

 

[MiTmite9]

How anyone can tolerate the stench of Irish Spring is beyond my ken. Ugh. I hope all of you realize that when you breathe in that junk you're inhaling chemicals which are really bad for your health.

Irish Spring is loaded with VOCs (volatile organic compounds). The synthetic chemicals can trigger headaches, asthma and irritate your respiratory tract. Small wonder that garden animals avoid the stuff.

And don't forget: if you put this toxic crap on your skin, it is being absorbed into your body.

@1008cm. If you have squirrels, good luck growing sunflowers. Squirrels will "harvest" the flowerheads by tearing them to shreds --- long before any birds can get to the seeds.

 

[l008com]

How anyone can tolerate the stench of Irish Spring is beyond my ken. Ugh. I hope all of you realize that when you breathe in that junk you're inhaling chemicals which are really bad for your health.

Irish Spring is loaded with VOCs (volatile organic compounds). The synthetic chemicals can trigger headaches, asthma and irritate your respiratory tract. Small wonder that garden animals avoid the stuff.

And don't forget: if you put this toxic crap on your skin, it is being absorbed into your body.

@1008cm. If you have squirrels, good luck growing sunflowers. Squirrels will "harvest" the flowerheads by tearing them to shreds --- long before any birds can get to the seeds.

I have never had a problem with squirrels and my sunflowers. Only rabbits.

 

[l008com]

I planted 10 new sunflowers today. They were about 18" tall. I did a row of 5 along my driveway and another row of 5 along my back walkway.

Both rows got a bar of soap cut up into chunks and placed around. I put one chunk right next to the stem and tehn other chunks sort of 'around' the plant in a cross-like pattern.

I did have two screens left over, so two of the 10 randomly got a screen, so they'll definitely make it. The rest hopefully don't get eaten thanks to the soap. MAN that soap stiiiiiinks. I took the cover off the 5 gallon bucket i keep the bars in and it burned my eyes and my nose. It will be great of this works though.

 

[Xraycer]

How anyone can tolerate the stench of Irish Spring is beyond my ken. Ugh. I hope all of you realize that when you breathe in that junk you're inhaling chemicals which are really bad for your health.

Irish Spring is loaded with VOCs (volatile organic compounds). The synthetic chemicals can trigger headaches, asthma and irritate your respiratory tract. Small wonder that garden animals avoid the stuff.

And don't forget: if you put this toxic crap on your skin, it is being absorbed into your body.

@1008cm. If you have squirrels, good luck growing sunflowers. Squirrels will "harvest" the flowerheads by tearing them to shreds --- long before any birds can get to the seeds.

I have never had a problem with squirrels and my sunflowers. Only rabbits.

This is my first year growing sunflowers. The local tree rats have not bothered it, yet, but maybe its just because they haven't figured it out, yet.
It did take them about 20 years to figure out that my Halloween pumpkins contain seeds.

 

[dirty hands]

Dr

How anyone can tolerate the stench of Irish Spring is beyond my ken. Ugh. I hope all of you realize that when you breathe in that junk you're inhaling chemicals which are really bad for your health.

Irish Spring is loaded with VOCs (volatile organic compounds). The synthetic chemicals can trigger headaches, asthma and irritate your respiratory tract. Small wonder that garden animals avoid the stuff.

And don't forget: if you put this toxic crap on your skin, it is being absorbed into your body.

@1008cm. If you have squirrels, good luck growing sunflowers. Squirrels will "harvest" the flowerheads by tearing them to shreds --- long before any birds can get to the seeds.

It triggers my mcas.

 

[l008com]

THOSE LITTLE SHITS ate one of them already! Just the leaves, not the stem. So MAYBE it sprouts some new leaves and keeps growing, but I doubt it. None were in my yard when I got home so I couldn't send them to another realm. Maybe ill get lucky and the others will grow fast and avoid the same fate. At least I'll get 2 out of this batch of 10. I may have to either break down and make more screens, or just accept that I can't grow tons of them until some coyotes take up residence in my yard.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Did you spot my earlier post about using a cheese grater to create a ground level barrier? Might work better than the chunks around them?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I'm also thinking they make things to keep cats off lawns, a motion detector that sets of a water jet.
With soap as well you might get the cleanest rabbits in Massachusetts

 

[l008com]

HAHA! The chunks smelled SO BAD, I thought they would work. And my thinking was chunks would last through regular watering and rain, but grated mush soap would disappear pretty quick.