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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to beg you for your fox solutions

108 replies

WinterDeWinter · 27/04/2024 14:06

We live in London in an area which seems to have a lot of foxes - they run around the streets quite happily during the day, and fox-shit/piss in the garden has always been a problem. I hate, really hate the smell.

We have a dog who goes nuts when she sees them in the garden at night and seems tense all evening, waiting for that to happen.

Recently one fox has started walking along our garden fence multiple times per night, right up to our big doors. It's like it's taunting us and her! It's pissing on everything, especially just outside the doors, and now that spring is coming opening them in the day lets the smell into the house.

Has ANYONE had any success with any kind of repellant?

I don't want to put curtains up (am quite uptight about the look of the room haha) but will probably have to bite the bullet

DH sprinkled his urine on the fence yesterday - fox did not GAF last night.Grin

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namechangedtemporarily123 · 10/05/2024 08:26

Watching with interest. My elderly cat is afraid to go outside when they're around and is now pooing and peeing in the house.

Tagyoureit · 07/05/2024 16:20

Since doing the teabags in deep heat on the driveway, I still haven't seen a fox there. However, I've now come home after a long weekend away, to find a family of foxes in the back garden 🤦‍♀️

So as I type, there's 3 cubs frolicking on the lawn, here's a picture of 2 of them. They are kinda cute playing about 🙈

to beg you for your fox solutions
DPotter · 01/05/2024 18:51

We don't have pets, although we do have several visiting cats - don't think they were adversely effected by bits of orange peel around!

Kingoftheroad · 01/05/2024 16:04

I hate them - my life was being made abject misery when my neighbour wouldnt stop feeding them. Couldnt even sit out in the summer. Four foxes circling me looking
for food

my wee dog was petrified. RSPCA told me that the worse thing that could be done for them was for humans to feed them. Making them dependent, unable to hunt and a health hazard as they shit everywhere.

Thankfully the neighbours in question moves house or mine would have been on market

theDudesmummy · 01/05/2024 15:46

We put the chili flakes in the places where the foxes hung out, and also left some full dustbin bags accessible, with chili flakes all over the contents. The foxes ripped open the bags, as they do. They never came back again.

Original poster
WinterDeWinter · 01/05/2024 15:46

@CloudPop that looks like a fantastic company and i'm really pleased to hear it works.

For anyone following Foxagon has a huge amount of info here including info on deterrent methods - it looks as though you can buy the spray from them to apply yourself..

Fox problems FAQ

Humane fox management service

https://fox-a-gon.co.uk/foxproblemsfaq/

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SurelySmartie · 01/05/2024 15:39

I love foxes but this is the problem with people feeding them they’re getting more and more comfortable with humans.

The numbers of videos and channels on YouTube of people feeding urban foxes and interacting and even getting gently (and not so gently) bitten is growing massively. It’s becoming a hobby for some people. It’s going to have unfortunate consequences as not everyone likes them.

CloudPop · 01/05/2024 15:34

@WinterDeWinter we had the same problem which has been solved by using a firm called fox-a-gon. They are a humane service - they spray some stuff in your garden (even better if you can get some neighbours to do the same). We get it done once a year and it keeps them almost entirely at bay, without actually harming them (like you, I hate them but couldn't bring myself to get the snipers in)

Original poster
WinterDeWinter · 01/05/2024 15:02

@steppemum that is a good point - there is definitely a route
@rockstarshoes ooh maybe we didn't persevere enough. I think DH would welcome the opportunity to reassert his masculinity - he was rather crestfallen.

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rockstarshoes · 01/05/2024 14:48

Male urine does work but you'll need to do it more than once!

I had DH peeling into a watering can in the downstairs toilet for weeks to get rid of some foxes that were bothering my cat!

steppemum · 01/05/2024 14:40

If he is walking the fences, then I would pick cat spikes on the top (the plastic ones that they don't like but doesn't hurt them).

I find it interesting that the foxes only came into my garden one way, through the wall at the field side. They do tend to have routes, so disrupt the route and they may get less

LardoBurrows · 01/05/2024 14:30

Watching with interest whilst my regular foxy visitor is curled up asleep under the blackberry brambles. Those brambles will be cut back, garden tidied and a new six foot fence put up in the next few months. Will be interesting to see if that is enough to deter him/her. Haven't ventured to the end of the garden to see if there is poo, am assuming there will be when we clear it all.

Original poster
WinterDeWinter · 01/05/2024 14:25

steppemum · 01/05/2024 14:19

we have chickens, and a field behind our house with a fox den, and a neighbour who decided during covid to feed the foxes, so now there are 30 million in the field.

Our garden has a 5' high fence and wall all round.
On the field side it is 6' tall from the field.
But they still jumped over the wall or fence into our garden. Or sometimes got into the neighbours garden and then over via his shed roof.
We have lost so many chickens, middle of the day, ripped the chicken coop apart, undid th ebolt holding the door closed, you name it they've done it. bloody hate foxes.

Then we got a rescue dog who was an escape artist. Dog clambers up the 5' wall, jumps down and dances round the field in delight.

We put a 3 ' high chicken wire fence along the top of the wall. Not all of it, just certain parts where he was getting over, to keep the dog in. Not strong, just verticla batons with chicken wire on, and wire is pinned to the top edge of the wall. Dog can no longer get out.

Unexpected side effect - no more foxes.

Oh interesting @steppemum, very glad your chickens are safe now. Trouble is our neighbour has tall-ish shed against the fence and I think even if the fence were 9-10 feet they'd still be able to jump up. And our garden is so small it would feel like the exercise pen in a supermax.

OP posts:
steppemum · 01/05/2024 14:23

and I shoudl add, that we have a garden gate at the front that the cats jump over.
Neither dog nor foxes is remotely bothered in jumping the gate!

Original poster
WinterDeWinter · 01/05/2024 14:21

do chilli flakes seem to affect pets @theDudesmummy ?

OP posts:
steppemum · 01/05/2024 14:19

we have chickens, and a field behind our house with a fox den, and a neighbour who decided during covid to feed the foxes, so now there are 30 million in the field.

Our garden has a 5' high fence and wall all round.
On the field side it is 6' tall from the field.
But they still jumped over the wall or fence into our garden. Or sometimes got into the neighbours garden and then over via his shed roof.
We have lost so many chickens, middle of the day, ripped the chicken coop apart, undid th ebolt holding the door closed, you name it they've done it. bloody hate foxes.

Then we got a rescue dog who was an escape artist. Dog clambers up the 5' wall, jumps down and dances round the field in delight.

We put a 3 ' high chicken wire fence along the top of the wall. Not all of it, just certain parts where he was getting over, to keep the dog in. Not strong, just verticla batons with chicken wire on, and wire is pinned to the top edge of the wall. Dog can no longer get out.

Unexpected side effect - no more foxes.

theDudesmummy · 01/05/2024 14:10

Chilli flakes work

Original poster
WinterDeWinter · 01/05/2024 14:09

Tagging @RamblingAroundTheInternet and @DPotter in the above question…

OP posts:
Original poster
WinterDeWinter · 01/05/2024 14:07

@idontlikealdi and @CantDealwithChristmas and anyone else with a solution that seems to have worked - could you also say whether you have pets and if they’ve appeared to be affected? Thank you!

OP posts:
Original poster
WinterDeWinter · 01/05/2024 14:05

Tagyoureit · 01/05/2024 13:05

@WinterDeWinter

I've tried the teabags soaked in deep heat on my drive and in the last 24 hours, I've not seen a fox put there so it looks like this might have worked! I mixed deep heat with water then soaked the teabags in it then dropped them around the drive.

Oh my god @Tagyoureit Will you report back again tomorrow??!!

@CantDealwithChristmas hahahah yes!

OP posts:
CantDealwithChristmas · 01/05/2024 13:10

Call Jolyon Maugham. Tell him to bring his baseball bat. And his wife's kimono.

Tagyoureit · 01/05/2024 13:05

@WinterDeWinter

I've tried the teabags soaked in deep heat on my drive and in the last 24 hours, I've not seen a fox put there so it looks like this might have worked! I mixed deep heat with water then soaked the teabags in it then dropped them around the drive.

Nothinglefttosaynow · 30/04/2024 07:19

Wonderwater2 · 28/04/2024 11:12

It's complete nonsense that banning hunting lead to urban foxes in London.

Rural foxes and urban foxes are very different and there has even be talk of seperating them out as subspecies because they are so different. Studies show they exhibit different behaviour, eat different things and are built differently. In places like London it's likely that they could be hundreds of years apart from rural cousins. Even in fairly new urban areas and developments you're looking at foxes that are multiple generations of urban foxes (a city fox has an approx life span of 2 years, rural foxes can live into their teens)

From a cub you can identify if a fox is from rural lines or urban lines. Decent wildlife rescues won't release an urban fox in the country or a rural fox in the city because each will struggle in an enviroment they aren't adapted to.

I used to work within wildlife rescues and to be honest it's mostly a human made problem.

In any small block of houses you'll find a house where someone is actively training them like a dog to handfeed, come to the back door, come back each night for food etc and a next door neighbour who will shoot them if they do. It's impossible for them to navigate

It's so blooming risky for the foxes. Locally one family hangs out at a shop because people encourage it by buying sandwiches etc because they think its kind. It's a really unsafe place for that fox and hanging out there will kill it. its parents (or at least one parent and a grandparent) were hit by cars in the same car park it sits in and at least one of it's siblings was poisoned likely because it's such an easy target.
It's actively training a fox to engage in unsafe behaviours

Edited

This is so interesting thank you! We have a family that come & have been for at least 5 years, I know this as one of them has only 3 legs & I wondered how they were still going after all this time given the 2 year lifespan! We are surrounded by fields etc but only a few miles from the city centre too so maybe our foxes have the best of both worlds.

idontlikealdi · 29/04/2024 07:33

Also in London. I made up a spray bottle of chilli and and vinegar and doused the boundary liberally every day for a week. They never came back.