Do Rabbits Eat Morning Glories? (Solved!)
Melissa Johnson
When looking to add some vibrant color to your garden, you should definitely consider planting morning glories.
These beautiful and fragrant flowers are certain to liven up the space outside your home.
Plus, as they grow fast and easily cover walls and fences, they can also help you add some privacy and keep your yard out of sight.
Besides stunning visual appeal, Morning glory is also easy to grow, hardy, and a rather healthy plant.
However, it’s also fairly nutrient, which is why they are often a target for a variety of wild animals and pests who love feasting on these gorgeous plants.
This is especially a concern for people who have rabbits in their surroundings and fear that they may endanger their precious plants.
So, do rabbits eat morning glories, and if they do what you can do to stop them?
Let’s find it out!
Table of Contents
Do Rabbits Eat Morning Glories?
Not only do the rabbits eat morning glories, but they love it and find it rather tasty.
It’s hardly surprising that rabbits are drawn to this plant as morning glory is rather nutritious and rabbits find it to be a great source of vitamins, fiber, and minerals.
Plus, rabbits love plants with a sweet taste and crunchy texture which is exactly the type of food morning glory is.
Additionally, eating morning glory has a positive effect on rabbits’ fur as it contains compounds that help the fur stay healthy and shiny.
Also, you may notice that rabbits are especially keen on munching the morning glory in the summer months.
This is because, like most plants, eating morning glory helps them keep cool in warm weather.
How to Stop Rabbits from Eating Morning Glory
If you don’t want to keep finding your morning glory chomped off, especially the leaves, you should take certain measures to deter rabbits from feasting on this beautiful plant.
The first precautionary measure you can take is carefully choosing the location for your morning glories.
Planting them in an enclosed space, such as a garden enclosure or raised bed will make them much less accessible for rabbits.
Another way to prevent rabbits from even coming close to morning glory vines is covering them with mesh netting.
You can also repel the rabbits naturally by making the morning glory less appealing to them.
You can do this by spraying the plant with a mixture of water and vinegar or using the soap, cheap perfume, or similar repellant you likely already have at your home.
For an even more natural solution, you can try spreading citrus peels around the plant.
What Else can be Eating Morning Glories?
Rabbits are not the only potential threat to your morning glories.
There are a number of other culprits that can be responsible for devouring these gorgeous plants.
Below is a brief overview of these pests and the ways to protect your plants from them.
Do Deer Eat Morning Glories?
If you live near an area with a deer population, then these animals could be one of the potential culprits for decimated morning glory in your garden.
Morning glory contains a chemical called saponin which repels some animals, but deer, just like rabbits, are among the species that are not deterred by it.
Commonly, deer will only feast on leaves and flowers, as the seeds can be poisonous to animals.
How to Stop Deer from Eating Morning Glory
In case it’s the deer eating your morning glory, there’s not much that you can do to protect it except build a fence around the area where you have this plant.
Also, you may create a barrier made of thorny plants or pungent perennials surrounding the morning glory.
Do Snails Eat Morning Glories?
Snails and slugs also love feasting on morning glory and can easily devour the entire vine.
They’re mostly active at night and are often the reason why you may find your morning glory vines decimated in the morning.
Besides feeding on foliage, snails are also known to feast on morning glory flowers and buds.
You can easily recognize that they were in the garden making the damage by the slimy trail they leave behind.
How to Stop Snails from Eating Morning Glory
There are a couple of actions you can take to control the snail population in your garden.
Depending on how serious the problem is, you can use one of these methods or combine them.
If the snail population in the garden is relatively low, you can simply hunt them at night when they commonly come out to feast.
Use a torchlight to find them, pick them off, and throw them into the bucket filled with soapy water.
You can also create a protective barrier around your morning glory by surrounding the plant with broken eggshells or coarse sand.
Also, you can dig a hole and place a cup filled with beer in it, so it’s only about half an inch above the ground.
This will attract the snails and they will gather in the cup which you can simply pick up in the morning and easily dispose of these pests.
Do Caterpillars Eat Morning Glories?
Certain kinds of moth and butterfly caterpillars also can be a threat to your morning glory.
This is especially true for the green caterpillar called Leafcutter, which is known to often attract morning glory vines.
Besides eating morning glory leaves, these caterpillars also can bore all the way to tender stems, decimating the morning glory plants in your garden.
How to Stop Caterpillars from Eating Morning Glory
It’s vital that you react as soon as you notice a single caterpillar on your morning glory as the problem can easily get out of hand.
If the infestation is still in its beginning stage, you can pick caterpillars off by hand and get rid of them that way.
If caterpillars are already present in more significant numbers, spray the plant with a solution made of 1/2 teaspoon of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) mixed in a gallon of water.
Do Bugs Attack Morning Glories?
Another threat to your morning glory comes from the world of insects.
There are several kinds of bugs that can attract these plants, including Cotton Aphids, Japanese Beetles, and Spider mites.
Commonly, these bugs feed on morning glory leaves, and in case of severe infestation, they kill the entire plant.
How to Stop Bugs from Eating Morning Glory
You should react to these pests as soon as you notice them as they usually multiply rather quickly.
One way to counter them is by using various chemical insecticides you can purchase at the garden supply store.
However, these insecticides can also kill beneficial insects that feed on harmful pests.
If you want a more natural solution, you can spray the plant with Neem oil or rub the leaves with rubbing alcohol.
Conclusion
Every garden will look much nicer if you plant morning glory and allow it to add its vibrant presence to the entire environment outside your home.
However, you should be aware that morning glory may attract some pests and animals that love feeding on its leaves and flowers.
Rabbits, deer, chipmunks, or groundhogs, as well as various kinds of insects, all adore morning glory and enjoy its nutritious content.
Therefore, some precautionary measures are necessary to keep your plants healthy and looking beautiful.
Protecting your morning glory won’t require much effort, so your child definitely looks into some of the advice detailed above.
It won’t take much of your time and your plants will certainly appreciate it.
