How to Neutralize Rabbit Urine on a Lawn

If you have a wild rabbit visiting your yard or you have a pet rabbit you allow to access to your lawn, neutralizing the urine helps protect your lawn from unsightly brown patches. Rabbit urine also carries a strong ammonia scent. Knowing the proper steps to neutralizing rabbit urine allows you to restore your lawn to lush green and removes the noxious smells from your property.

1. Spray the area where the rabbit urinated using a garden hose as soon as possible. Saturate the area to dilute the urine and wash it away. If you are unsure of where the rabbit urinated, spray down the entire yard after spotting a rabbit in your yard or taking your pet inside.

2. Spray the area a second time 3 to 4 hours after the first hosing to further wash away the urine. Wait until the first water application is absorbed into the ground, before rewashing the area.

3. Sprinkle gypsum or lime around your yard where you see the rabbit most often. In the case of a pet rabbit, sprinkle the gypsum where you let the rabbit play. Gypsum encourages better soil quality, which in turn helps with the browning.

4. Spray sidewalks and mulch areas with water to dilute the urine. Once the water dries, spray the area with a solution of 50 percent water and 50 percent white distilled vinegar to neutralize the odor. Do not spray the mixture on grass or plants. Removing the odor of the urine discourages other rabbits from visiting that area, eliminating additional urine spots to treat.

Tip

Grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass and Bermuda grass, are more susceptible to lawn burn. When re-sodding, choose perennial rye grasses, which are heartier. Vinegar is the neutralizer of choice indoors. However, spraying vinegar directly on your lawn will kill the grass and any other plants it comes in contact with. Sprinkle your lawn with blood meal to repel wild rabbits. Alternatively, fill cheesecloth sacks with blood meal and hang them around your garden and lawn on garden stakes. Rabbits dislike the smell of it, keeping them out of your yard and removing the need to neutralize their urine. Keep pet rabbits confined in set areas of the lawn to make urine neutralization easier. Set up a pet playpen in a designated area every time you take the rabbit outdoors. Alternatively, place your rabbit in a small fenced in area to keep it off the grass.