To poison these bloody foxes??

[curiousgeorgie]

Everyday I wake up to rubbish all over my garden and driveway... Foxes shit on my decking and today my doormat!!!

The whole place stinks and it's getting ridiculous. They live in the bit behind my garden because our back neighbours have fenced off the weeds at the back of theirs...

My next door neighbours feed them. 3 times a day from a plate on their decking. Whole loaves of bread and pieces of meat and blocks of cheese...

I just want to get rid of them. Day one when we saw four baby foxes running around our garden we thought it was lovely, but now it's totally ridiculous. I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old and every morning I have to go out and clean and hose before my daughter can go out.

It must be okay to poison them or something right??

I don't think anyone has suggested trapping & releasing have they? If so I've missed it - I suggested trapping & removing to the country to shoot them, rather than shoot in built up areas.

Trapping and releasing is considered very inhumane and may well not solve the problem - in an urban area a new set of foxes would just move in.

There are only two legal methods to permanently deal with foxes, and only one applies to you since you are in an urban area. Legally you can have them trapped and destroyed with lethal injection. However, it can be very costly and chances are the council will not cover it (last time I looked it was in the region of £450 per fox) and it can be hard to find a vet willing to administer the injection to a healthy animal - and only a vet can.

Your best bet is managing your own territory, someone already suggested Scoot and I'm going to second it: Scoot on Amazon.

You may find this gets worse before it gets better, and chances are you won't actually get rid of them, but you may deter them from your garden. If you challenge the foxes (which you will be by using something like Scoot) they may 'fight' for their territory by scent marking and pooping on everything for a while. This should subsidise if you persist.

If you prefer the idea of trapping & destroying then have a look for someone through these guys BCPA. But remember it could be expensive and new foxes could just move in.

Can't remember the poster who gave you the list of how to secure the garden (sorry) but do everything they said and also consider getting a taller, stronger fence.

Your idiot neighbours are not only idiots for feeding wild animals in their garden but also for feeding them bread 3 times a day this is from the RSPCA:

If you choose to feed foxes, they'll eat meat in almost any form - cooked or raw - and cooked vegetables too. Only put out enough food for one meal, otherwise leftovers may go off and cause sickness or attract other unwanted animal visitors.

so perhaps let your neighbours know they may be harming the foxes by feeding them junk too often.

Good luck with this and PM me if this thread dies - really interested to hear the outcome and if you manage to contain your garden (or if you end up trapping & destroying). Work with foxes (but mainly rural) and find every aspect, good and bad, completely fascinating

Pest controllers aren't allowed to release vermin back into the wild. They'll either be dispatched on site or captured and removed and dispatched elsewhere. Probably more humane to carry out a quick kill in their environment than to subject them to being caught and caged first.

Crossposts - you cannot shoot a fox in an urban area. I'm pretty certain of it, health and safety/council would wet their pants. But you can lethally inject them once trapped.

Moving to countryside and shooting would be an option but don't know if it's done routinely since it would be v stressful for fox to go to.

curious, you've just ignored a perfectly legitimate company who will survey and fox proof your garden for you, thus ridding you of your current problem and preventing future problems all in one go in favour of a random Mumsnetter's husband with a cage and a gun?!

You're not bloodthirsty at all are you?

If you take up iccles very kind offer I give it two weeks before the next family of foxes move in. If one was cynical one might even believe that pest "controllers" fail to mention this to keep a good cycle of customers going.

OP you have my sympathy. Neighbours next door but one have a set under their shed. The foxes sht in our garden every day. Any childrens toys or furniture left out (we're in London, space at a premium) gets chewed. They chewed/pulled on the lighting in the garden and caused £200 of damage. 'Pricky bushes' etc are not suitable for my 2 and 4 year old, neither is falling in fox sht/digging in it when they want to play at planting. We have brick walls on 2 sides about 5ft in height and a fence over 6 ft at the back. They jump over them. I've used various repellent ideas along the walls but they just seem to move their route for a bit then move back. I'm absolutely fed up of them. Not sure if I can instigate a kill if they don't live on my land though.

There is no point in removal of the current foxes, more will just move into the now vacant habitat. You need to follow previous posters suggestions on how to make your garden less attractive to foxes.

Are you quite sure it is fox poo and not cat poo? Our foxes never shit in our garden, but all the neighbourhood cats do.

And get the council to have a word with the fox- feeding neighbours.

there are some idiots who trap urban foxes and bring them to west wales to be 'free' - they have no idea how to survive and last about a week

It's definitely foxes. It stinks and it's everywhere.... We used to have a cat so I'm fairly certain.

If you decide to dispose of the foxes you have to do it humanely (injection) you cannot shoot them in urban area and you cannot transport them to safe area for shooting (massively, massively inhumane). You definitely cannot catch and release.

Be aware that new foxes will move in - usually in a matter of days not weeks and you will be back to square one. Eliminating one fox den can actually have negative consequences for the human populous as you've defeated one competitor for survival and given all other foxes an easier time to survive and improved their mortality rates.

Dispose of them if you want but be aware it may not be the end of the problem at all.

Sounds pretty much like the problem I have with neighbours' cats. You can't poison them, either. Or shoot them.

That fox-a-agon site linked to above actually has some really useful information that you could use OP

I lived in the country, they shoot them with rifles.

They'll lure mothers out with cubs and shoot them all.

Then they go out at night with 20 bore shotguns and shoot the rabbits which breed freely because you don't see many foxes in the country side which could eat a young rabbit (see above).

Then they get together with their mates with ratting dogs and illegally altered overpowered air rifles & shoot the rats.

Birds of prey will get shot at if no ones looking.

Literally hours of fun.

When we got our cat (bengal) we had to keep a collar on him so no one thought he was wild and shot him, that was on the advice of the local farmer.

Foxagon - I'm so sorry, I missed your post, I'll have a look at your website.

There are no cats round here. I have never seen one in my garden in 4 years. I have, however, seen foxes.

If we can concrete under that shed then once disposed of the foxes can't live in such close proximity so a new set can't 'literally' move in. I'm going to look into extermination I think. (And befriending the neighbours so I can build proper foundations for their shed....)

Rural person here but you have my sympathies.

Round here anyone with a fox problem asks someone with a gun license to sort, if you get my drift. Reading your thread it's unclear whether that would be legal or not in an urban area.

That said, there are fewer foxes here than there were before hunting was banned - I think the gamekeepers do a good job keeping their numbers down.

The other thing I do to protect my chickens is have an electric fence around the edge of my field. That seems to have done the trick. Guess that's not logistically possible for you though especially as you have a pet. Your DCs and the postman probably wouldn't appreciate it either.

Herethereandeverywhere - if I find a solution that is successful i'll let you know!

"I'd be very surprised if foxes were coming into a garden where a dog might be."

In our area of London, the foxes have no fear whatsoever of dogs, and I have two separate friends who have had to take their dogs to the vet after foxes gave them nasty bites.

We are plagued with foxes and we and all our neighbours have dogs. Not small dogs, either.

Try washing down your patio with Jeyes Fluid. I douse what I can in Jeyes Fluid, but we still get the foxes. Maybe not quite so much, though.

You have my sympathies, OP. We have just moved from a rented property where the previous tenants fed foxes. As a result, they were frequently in the garden, usually in broad daylight & once only inches from DD sleeping in her pram. They were so blatant, entering a neighbour's kitchen while she & her DS were in it.

The council were not prepared to intervene. We could not make adaptions eg fencing as we were renting. Thankfully we moved, ironically nearer the country, but with no foxes.

Fluffycloud - they are there not because of something I have. But because the neighbour has basically set up a buffet for them!!

My neighbours hate the fox and badger as much as I do. They have dogs and are worried about the dog getting out with them. They don't get a buffet, they just come in to dig up the gardens.

Scoot is brilliant. I had a problem with large foxes coming into my garden - pooing and scaring the cat; so I put Scoot in a watering can and watered it round the garden to deter the foxes. I had to use it twice, then it worked and the foxes haven't been back.

It's harmless to all animals, quite cheap, in fact you can buy it on ebay and probably places like garden centres too. Water it onto your decking.

put up a better fence

Report neighbours to council. It is seriously antisocial of your neighbours to feed foxes when this is going on.

I'm still haunted by a story that was in the news a couple of years ago. A London couple left their back patio door ajar, and a fox came inside, went upstairs and mauled their baby.

Here's some info on dealing with urban foxes:
www.rbkc.gov.uk/environmentandtransport/environmentalhealth/pestcontrolservice/urbanfoxes.aspx

Samsam - my dog is an escape artist. We have a fantastic fence. They jump it. A fence isn't a deterrent to a fox.