Foxes in garden - good or bad?

[guessmyusername]

Hi, I live in a city and while I saw a fox wandering a couple of streets away a few years ago. Twice this week early morning I have spotted one actually in my garden, or rather on my shed and then walking along the top of the fence. I don't know if we should do something to discourage it or what. There are no young children or pets in this household. Anyone have any idea?

I've been thinking about this and, whilst it is sort of true (my house was built on farmland in the 1930s for example) I think it's gone beyond that in places like London. The only real predator of the urban fox is motor vehicles and the population has risen far beyond what it would in a "natural habitat". The same goes for rats really I suppose although they have more predators.

like I said earlier, I don't do anything to deter them but I do think they can be a real problem.

They used to be round here until a save the fox charity from Sussex got wind of the annual cull and picketed it. So we said fine, take the foxes back to Sussex, but they declined.

I used to like them and having them around but I lived somewhere they weren’t such a menace.

Now they’re digging up my newly laid turf every night and shitting on my spinach and I’ve had fork out £££ on cages to protect my vegetables. 🤬

Yes because they’ve lost their natural fear of humans and they don’t keep the local wildlife in check they just eat Deliveroo from dustbins.

Also they have proliferated - I grew up in London and fox sightings were quite rare as a kid. Now they’re everywhere and saunter down streets with fuck you smiles.

I swear they’re laughing at us from their lairs.

I get foxes in my garden. I like them, but Dcat doesn't and chases them out!

I'm convinced that what the Irish called the banshee ( if you heard horrific wailing at night which supposedly foretold a death in the family ) was actually foxes shagging.

I've seen the fur of a squirrel on my lawn, lots of feathers, holes dug in the lawn and poo too - feckin fox basking in the flower beds at 10 am.
The vet said not to leave our wee dog out alone in the garden.

Neighbours' dogs have got mange from them and very costly vet bills.

I agree. There are too many of them to be sustainable, far more than in their actual natural habitat. There's too much food, partly because idiots feed them. They can afford to cluster, where in the actual wild they'd be much more sparse.
It's true too about their diet. Those on here trotting out 'they keep rats down', no they don't. Apart from the aforementioned idiots feeding them, there's a wealth of left-over food for them to scavenge. Why would they bother themselves to actually hunt when they can just get fried chicken out of bins?

I put monkey nuts out for the birds and have seen foxes eating them. That's how far away from any sort of noble hunting behaviours they moved.

The number of people on here utterly ignorant of what living with urban foxes is actually like and what their behaviours are is astonishing and the 'consider yourself blessed'/'aw they're lovely leave them alone' comments are very ill-informed.

Not a Londoner but I live in another big City and I definitely consider them vermin.
not helped by them murdering my pet rabbit as a child
Not that there is much you can do to discourage them.
Still, I'd rather the fox family than the fence destroying badger.

I hate them. But I'm from farming stock.

I live in the suburbs of a major city (not London). There are loads of foxes here and I can't say that I recognise any of the problems that people mention here (except maybe the noise).

Certainly not rubbish strewn all over the place! I expect that this has something to do with the fact that London has too many people, including lots of foreigners who don't understand about bin collections.

Unless the OP is actually a penguin I think she’s probably fine.

All carnivores kill things, it doesn’t make them vicious. How do you think they eat?

Possibly down to council budget cuts meaning many areas have only fortnightly collections now, rather than it being a Dickensian stew.

The 'foreigners' comment is poor satire, I take it.

Lol at the early pp who said they are a blessing 😬

In this setting they are no different from large rats.

I mind the poo less than the screeching. I once had a nice fox diarrhea on my doorstep. But the screeching is Every. Single. Night and wakes me then I can't go back to sleep. I'm on the edge of London so they have the forest and the leftover food.

I hate them. Fox poo REALLY stinks, and they like to leave it on doorsteps so you tread in it as you walk out of the house in the morning. If they can get hold of used nappies or sanitary towels, they have a good old game with them and then leave them strewn all over the place. I really really REALLY hate them.

They tried to kill me!!!!!!

OK...hyperbole but they did chew through my brake wire.

Well, for most urban foxes via Deliveroo.

😂😂 was just trying to point out that if you have a very old or young cat that a fox may attack it . It is fairly rare and a healthy cat will be able to defend itself. If you have foxes around and your cat has been unwell , best not to let it out at night. My former neighbour thought foxes were cute and cuddly and used to put dog food out for them.

We’ve had cats killed in my neighbourhood and last year a small toy breed of dog while out in the garden.

Yes, WHY do they shit on doorsteps or front paths? It’s never off to the side or tucked away by the front wall, it’s always a proper bullseye. Is it a vendetta?

It’s got absolutely nothing to do with foreigners. In my borough you’re supposed to put your bin contents out the night before but you can’t because the foxes demolish them. They can flip the lids of wheelie bins so there’s no point wheeling those out. The only thing you can do is put the rubbish out just before the dustbin men come - but they keep changing the times.

Dustbins in side passages or front gardens are regularly raided, and the contents strewn everywhere, the only way to stop that is to secure the bins inside locked storage.

Yes. It’s a big brown FU. 💩

"Foreigners" don't understand bin collections? Are you being serious ?

I would LOVE to have foxes in my garden, they get rid of rats & I really love foxes, I would even feed them if I saw them to encourage them to stay! & hedgehogs!

Bad if you have poultry or small furry pets outside. They can pass on fox mange to dogs.