Hi there. I’m afraid I have no experience using Advantix on rabbits. Assuming they’re kept outdoors, you could also try planting some things that are a natural repellent (though most of these plants need to be kept well out of bunnies eating reach). Things like geranium, citronella, lemongrass, and rosemary. If it you have an appropriate place, you can also hang up those sticky insect traps out of bunny reach near their hutch as a way to catch stray insects.

Unfortunately with the new strain of calici, blocking insects won’t prevent it from spreading. It’s very resilient and can be passed on via clothing, infected food such as greens and hay.

My bunnies are inside but I still worry about tracking something in, or letting a fly slip in.

Advantix has some repellent effect on mosquitoes due to it’s content of permethrin. Permethrin is however not considered completely bunny-safe. There’s been a study made with Advantix on rabbits though: http://www.jarvm.com/articles/Vol4Iss4/Hansen-Beck.pdf

This study only deals with the efficacy of the mediaction on rabit ectoparasites and doesn’t concern any repellent effect, but all the rabbits in the study tolerated the Advantix well. It’s a comparatively small study though and the rabbits were all of the same breed, so it might not be representative of all rabbits.

NEVER use fipronil (frontline, Effipro, Sentry) on a rabbit. Not that you would, but we always like to mention it when antiparasistics for rabbits are discussed.

You can use mosquito-netting that’s impregnated with permethrin. It’s much more effective against mosquitos than plain netting, studies in malaria-ridden parts of Africa have shown. The rabbit should not be in direct contact with the netting (the rabbit might otherwise chew the netting). Permethrin attaches itself to fabric and withstands washing up to 5 times.