Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
How about an electric fence?
Help: Urban foxes are digging up my lawn
- Thread starter User
- Start date
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We get the same issue in our garden, and they're a nuisance.
Foxes will keep going wherever they think it's safe and there's a plentiful food supply. Don't think of them like dogs - they are more like cats in the way that they can get through very small gaps, climb over fences etc.
In order for a fence to be "fox-proof" it needs to be 6 foot high, and go down into the ground at least 30 cms. Foxes will dig under obstacles, but they will not tunnel, so laying patio slabs along the length of a fence can also stop them digging under it.
If you have fruit trees, regularly pick up fallen fruit - this will continue to attract them back. Plant "spiteful" plants round the edge of the garden. And bushes with spines on them will put them off.
Foxes use their sense of smell alot. You can buy fox deterrent sachets that you dilute with water, although I didn't find them very effective. Pick up their c**p as soon as it appears, and urinate on the spot where it was to remove their smell (I'm not joking!)
An electric fence will work and only needs one or two wires fairly low to the ground (15cms or so) if you are trying to keep them away from a certain bit of your garden. I bought a kit off ebay for £70 that has the energiser and fence wire itself. It runs off a car battery that I bought second hand off ebay for about a tenner and helps keep my chickens safe.
We haven't got rid of them completely, but they don't tend to roam all over the garden any more - just the portion furthest away from the house.
As a side note, I believe it is legal to kill them, but NOT to poison them. However apparently if you kill them it doesn't really help, as another fox will just move on to that unoccupied terratory, so making your garden less tempting to them is a better solution.
Foxes will keep going wherever they think it's safe and there's a plentiful food supply. Don't think of them like dogs - they are more like cats in the way that they can get through very small gaps, climb over fences etc.
In order for a fence to be "fox-proof" it needs to be 6 foot high, and go down into the ground at least 30 cms. Foxes will dig under obstacles, but they will not tunnel, so laying patio slabs along the length of a fence can also stop them digging under it.
If you have fruit trees, regularly pick up fallen fruit - this will continue to attract them back. Plant "spiteful" plants round the edge of the garden. And bushes with spines on them will put them off.
Foxes use their sense of smell alot. You can buy fox deterrent sachets that you dilute with water, although I didn't find them very effective. Pick up their c**p as soon as it appears, and urinate on the spot where it was to remove their smell (I'm not joking!)
An electric fence will work and only needs one or two wires fairly low to the ground (15cms or so) if you are trying to keep them away from a certain bit of your garden. I bought a kit off ebay for £70 that has the energiser and fence wire itself. It runs off a car battery that I bought second hand off ebay for about a tenner and helps keep my chickens safe.
We haven't got rid of them completely, but they don't tend to roam all over the garden any more - just the portion furthest away from the house.
As a side note, I believe it is legal to kill them, but NOT to poison them. However apparently if you kill them it doesn't really help, as another fox will just move on to that unoccupied terratory, so making your garden less tempting to them is a better solution.
- Location
- Somewhere wet & hilly in NW England.
Well, we like foxes in our garden here.
Living in rural Cumbria we get foxes, squirrels, badgers, hedgehogs, moles and very occasionally the odd deer in our garden and it is lovely.
We also have a thriving mouse population in the stone walls of our garden. Some Townie visitors freak out when we tell them this.
I appreciate that if a fox got into a hen house or took a lamb that we might not feel so kindly towards them but we rather like living up close to all these interesting creatures. To us it's one of the big bonuses of living in the middle of nowhere.
Badgers are stunning but tbh they look a bit ferocious up close and personal - they are the only creatures that turned up in the garden that our dog was wary of. I think he knew that they pack a bit of a punch so to speak.
We have several lawns and I'm pretty sure if some fox digging went on we wouldn't be too fazed - might make a change from mole hills or the whopping great holes that cows that have escaped their field make!
Living in rural Cumbria we get foxes, squirrels, badgers, hedgehogs, moles and very occasionally the odd deer in our garden and it is lovely.
We also have a thriving mouse population in the stone walls of our garden. Some Townie visitors freak out when we tell them this.
I appreciate that if a fox got into a hen house or took a lamb that we might not feel so kindly towards them but we rather like living up close to all these interesting creatures. To us it's one of the big bonuses of living in the middle of nowhere.
Badgers are stunning but tbh they look a bit ferocious up close and personal - they are the only creatures that turned up in the garden that our dog was wary of. I think he knew that they pack a bit of a punch so to speak.
We have several lawns and I'm pretty sure if some fox digging went on we wouldn't be too fazed - might make a change from mole hills or the whopping great holes that cows that have escaped their field make!
marknotgeorge
Hol den Vorschlaghammer!
- Location
- Derby.
Puddles
Do I need to get the spray plaster out?
- Location
- Hamble, Southampton
Or worms
Puddles
Do I need to get the spray plaster out?
- Location
- Hamble, Southampton
ComedyPilot
Secret Lemonade Drinker
- Location
- The Kingdom of Yorkshire
Move house to the country - no foxes here any more - the landed gentry have killed them all, or drove them off to the city.
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
Guaranteed to deter blokes with a top hat and tails, a chair and a whip.
Davidc
Guru
- Location
- Somerset UK
Keep a lion as a pet?
We've got badgers using our front garden as a loo and I haven't found a way to stop them yet either.
We've got badgers using our front garden as a loo and I haven't found a way to stop them yet either.
Fnaar
Smutmaster General
- Location
- Thumberland
Are you sure they aren't the Mod Wolves:
Puddles
Do I need to get the spray plaster out?
- Location
- Hamble, Southampton
We have lots of foxes in the garden at the mo and lots and lots of fox poo, or as Major thought is was doggy eau d'cologne - he stank to high heaven after he rolled all over the garden the other night, Major was less than impressed when I then washed (chucked several large bucketsover) him in vinegar & bicarb to neutralise it
You used to be able to get free tiger poo from marwell zoo.
You used to be able to get free tiger poo from marwell zoo.
Puddles
Do I need to get the spray plaster out?
- Location
- Hamble, Southampton
Didn't think it would work on foxes, was just saying they used to do big animal poo free
Looks like in all seriousness you need to collect your wee and drizzle it around your garden
Puddles
Do I need to get the spray plaster out?
- Location
- Hamble, Southampton
and/or moth balls scatter moth balls, it can take 2-3 weeks to deter them
CharlieB
Junior Walker and the Allstars
- Location
- Therivermeadowatthepileofstones
Certainly I'll ask the question when I'm back
