Inventor turns water on rabbits

By: PATTY McCORMAC - For the North County Times
Anti-tagging device works on furry critters, too | Thursday, November 1, 2007 7:39 PM PDT ∞

Rabbits eat more than carrots.

Richard Miller learned that lesson the hard way as he stood by helplessly, watching rabbits feasting on his lawn and plants, well on their way to turning thousands of dollars worth of professional landscaping into rabbit pellets.

Then he got even. He invented something he says keeps the rabbits away for good, and it doesn't harm them.

Miller, a Wildomar resident, said he does not have words to describe how the damage to his garden looked, except that the lawn was "lumpy, bumpy," the plants and shrubs were being stripped and it was happening very quickly.

Although the rabbits were driving him nuts, he refused to take drastic action against them. His landscaper recommended a product with the scent of coyote urine, which supposedly keeps rabbits at bay.

"I don't want to knock the product, but I can tell you it certainly repels humans," he said of its stench. He could not see how it was helping, and it had to be reapplied frequently after rain or watering.

As it turned out, Toya, the family's fox terrier, turned into a muse by giving Miller the idea for a harmless way to get rid of the pests.

Miller is the inventor of Tagbak, a system that activates sprinklers by infrared sensors, which discourages graffiti at monuments, vulnerable walls and other locations. In a sense, it's "tagging back" the taggers. Think of the watering system at a grocery store's produce case, but with more gusto.

About two years ago, while Miller was developing the system, Toya kept walking through his garden activating the sprinklers, which he found annoying.

"Then, the epiphany," Miller said.

He suddenly realized that rabbits are much like taggers. If you chase them off your property, they will do their damage elsewhere.

Miller installed a fake boulder containing a sensor in his yard. When the device senses a warm body such as a rabbit, it tells the sprinkler system to activate.

"I replaced one of my sprinkler heads with an impact sprinkler. That sprinkler springs to life like a spitting cobra. It's like a water machine gun raking across my lawn. Rabbits bolt! It's a sight to see," he said.

The sprinkler stays on from five to 20 seconds. In his yard, it takes only seven seconds to send the rabbits scampering.

"Warm, fuzzy things don't like to get wet," he said.

Water is not wasted because the Tagbak stays on only as long as the motion persists.

He said he prefers noisy, clattering watering systems such as the Rainbird, which pop up and start shooting water across the property.

"It gives the rabbits no place to hide," he said.

The success at his home has led to other people seeking his help against the destructive rabbits.

Lucinda Powers, a neighbor of Miller's, said they, too, had a serious rabbit problem. When they came home after dark and their headlights swept over their yard, what they saw did not make them happy.

"You don't see just one rabbit, you see the whole family out there," said Powers, who got a Tagbak system about a year ago.

"We have been really happy with it," she said. "Our yard has never looked better."

When her neighbors asked what she was doing that they were not, she told them about the system. Word-of-mouth spread about the effectiveness of the system.

During the last two years, Miller said, he has done about 100 "bunny installs," but he points out that Tagbak works not only for rabbits, but for coyotes, raccoons, dogs, cats, deer or even people who take shortcuts through property.

The basic system costs less than $500 total, including installation, he said.

Now, Miller said, he can sleep soundly because he knows his rabbit problem is under control, but his landscape problems are not over.

"I do have a handle on bunnies, but I don't have a handle on devil grass," he said with a chuckle.

To learn more about the Tagbak system visit www.tagbak.com.