Misadventures in rabbit trapping & snaring

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I have rabbit problems. I just put in a bunch of expensive professional landscaping and a backyard garden, and even though the landscaper told me he chose deer/rabbit resistant plants, the rabbits immediately ate several plants down to the ground.

 

To remedy this, I first tried rat poison, the anti-coagulant type, baited with pieces of apple. As far as I could tell, the squirrels ate it all, and whenever it rained I had to start over.

 

Next, I tried building one of the simple box traps--as far as I could tell, nothing ever ventured inside, probably because it's summer and food sources are plentiful. Next I built a pyramid style trap, weighted down with a nice sized chunk of cement and a few metal rods, and so far all I have caught is an opossum. The trap was sprung a few times before then, but whatever triggered it escaped--it seemed whatever was caught had managed to push the top of the pyramid off to the side and wiggle out between that and the plywood base. I reinforced the sides, but since catching the opossum, it hasn't been triggered--I'm guessing I need to get rid of the opossum smell somehow?

 

Next, I decided to try snaring. Once I had chicken wire up around the garden, there is only a fairly narrow path on one side of the back yard, and there are only a couple of spots on the other side that the rabbits like to use to cross the fences--one missing wood slat in particular. I used the G.S. Waters style snare with a wooden peg, twine, a metal "standard" tealer made out of a clothes hangar, and 40 lb. picture wire for the snare. On the garden side, I've had no hits on the snare. On the missing slat I've had two confirmed hits, but both times the creature got away--first, the wire was missing completely, so I chalked that up to my double knot in the snare wire not being big enough. Last night I had another, and found the 40 lb. picture wire broken completely--I don't know if it's just not strong enough to hold the rabbit, or if it was chewed through.

 

I'm looking for any tips you might have to help me rid myself of these pests--I think my next step is a pellet rifle so that I'm not frustrated watching the rabbits mock me as they munch on my back yard grass in the evenings, it's just not an ideal solution given that the neighbors would not approve. I'd like to get the snares and traps working, maybe I need to invest in some "real" snare wire? Any other ideas?