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 will look into Scoot and make sure it's okay for the dog... Sounds promising though!!

Dog-proof isn't fox-proof, foxes are vastly more agile and one of those sites recommended earlier where they came round and foxproofed the garden included fencing.

As for the dogs -

Is Scoot Fox Repellent harmful to cats and dogs or children?
No, Scoot is not harmful to cats or dogs and is safe to use in your garden to repel foxes even if you have pets. It is not a repellent that works by ‘harming’ the fox. It is effective because it gives the fox a false impression that another animal has claimed the territory.

from foxrepellentexpert.com/review-scoot-fox-repellent/

"A fence isn't a deterrent to a fox"

It is if it is of a type with a cat/fox proof top on it (and a fox proof bottom).

OP, I don't think YABU at all. I am pretty unsentimental about animals. They sound like a complete pest so IMO YANBU to want rid of them.

Fencing does not keep them out. What a simplistic solution.

You ought to have them shot, stuffed and then arranged artfully on your neighbour's lawn, in whimsical positions. Then they can enjoy them forever...

People feeding foxes is irresponsible at best, can you speak to the council? Failing that, I'd really see about contacting a pest controller.

The problem is, all these recommendations against foxes are what is really buggering up hedgehogs and other wildlife up.

I don't like them in my garden, but it seems it's all so much more complex than just getting Foxy to fuck up.

"Fencing does not keep them out. What a simplistic solution"

The companies supplying fox-proof fencing seem to think otherwise.

My fencing and borders have proved otherwise. We only get him in because he's tunnelled under.

Here's our unwanted badger.

I have a fox that digs holes in my grass (can't really call if a lawn) and shits all over the grass too. It's a mangy old thing that limps on three legs and would probably be dead in the wild. I used to get dewy eyed at foxes in the city but I have had too many fox shit trails the through the house to find them endearing any longer, that and the wailing at night during the mating season. I joke that I am going to buy a pack of beagles and a horse and a red coat. But so far all I have managed to to is sprinkle scoot all over the garden. It's been three days now and so far, no new holes or crap.
I sympathise with OP getting so fed up with the bloody pests. But I wouldn't dare share here if I was thinking if something more drastic than scoot.
I don't have a rose for my watering can so I just sprinkled and hoped for the best. It stinks.
Aparently, lion shit is a good deterrent. Shame our local zoo has only meerkats now, I don't think simples shit would cut the mustard.

Oh curious your thread has made me so sad, especially the part where you said you'd poison them if it was legal. I can't believe anyone who knows the pain and suffering that this would cause would wish it on a fellow creature.

The inconveniences you are experiencing are really nothing compared to that!

Please take the advice on here about making your garden less appealing to the foxes. Killing them is pretty much pointless and wanting to says more about your personal resentment than you wanting to find a long term solution.

I think it's illegal to feed wild foxes, I seem to remember a neighbour being warned about it.
I do know that foxes are incredibly resistent to poison, and that any attempt to do so would be completely vile and unacceptable IMO.
I'd contact the council for advice, secure my garden and make sure that I left it as unappealing as possible for them, including secure bins for rubbish and not leaving toys or shoes outside for them to play with.

Speak to local pest control if you haven't already. I'm sure I saw one on the TV who shot urban foxes . it may be possible. They are a bloody nuisance!

YoureNotCutOutForHumanityAreYo. I am very interested in any research you could link to on the recent migration to and growth of the fox population in old urban areas from which they have been absent for many decades. I know the railway lines were a vector. Has anyone documented long distance migration from a devastated natural environment to a city? I don't need any research to illuminate why they sunbathe on patios of houses built in the last thirty years on the fields next to the chicken farm! I am looking for information about migration. All I can discover is that if due to destruction of habitat or otherwise food sources deplete,the fox population does not migrate any significant distance but dies out due to starvation.

I observed over decades the evolution of a new fox population in a city area. I call it feral to distinguish it from the wildlife population because it is markedly different physically and in its behaviour and would not be there had it not been cultivated by humans. It is not the remnant of an existing population but a modern introduction into a habitat. They are rather like free range pets. They wholly depend on humans deliberately feeding them every day. They would not survive without this feeding. They are huge and nothing like the foxes we traditionally found in this country. It is like a different breed and it is a growing breed in urban areas throughout Britain. In the case I mentioned a few foxes moved from natural habitat on the fringes of an urban area when plastic bag rubbish collections started. This easy availability of food led to a population explosion . Another factor was undoubtedly that it became less acceptable at around that time to allow dogs to roam freely in the streets. Dens established on the edge of the urban area . When wheelie bins arrived they started to starve. You could see starving foxes on the streets in broad daylight. People started feeding them. They were hungry enough to get near people and eat from their hands. Another population explosion. The new breed of feral foxes evolved,much,much bigger than the wild population,fearless of humans,living in gardens on food given to them by humans. A fortune is spent on dog food and chicken put out every day at back doors or fed by hand by people like the OPs neighbour.

What is the problem with dogs scaring foxes away? The right sort of dog is the sort that foxes stay away from without getting into a fight. Feral foxes would tear apart family pet type dogs. They are only scared by aggressive dogs that are not suitable as pets.

Good post, ItsDinah. Especially about the dogs. Ours wouldn't stand a chance - he's not bred or trained to harm other living creatures, so although he'd defend himself, we have been told he certainly wouldn't win in a fight with a feral fox.

Country person here.
In your shoes I would use an electric fence. A single strand placed so it can't short and attached to an energizer would sort it. Most animals once they get a dap off it, will not push their luck and you may only need to switch it on now and again as an individual, having got one hit off it won't try it again. They are intelligent. I suspect an electric strand and energiser may be your cheapest and best option actually. You can get mains run or battery operated. If you get battery, run it off a deep cycle (leisure) battery that is designed to be run down entirely (unfortunately a bit pricey) not a car batt that is not designed to be flattened completely (which will bugger it)
Human urine works up to a point too but who wants to piss all over the garden you want your DCs playing in.

I have a terrier. He chases foxes. He never catches them. I call him off, but he tries to and they run.

These are foxes I know are fed by hand. I donate chicken carcasses to the person who feeds them from time to time. They still run when they spot my terrier.

Also they are just foxes, albeit slightly fat foxes, but foxes non the less. They are not super foxes.

My terrier is able to distinguish between foxes and my children. Maybe it's because I bathe my children regularly? They certainly don't smell like foxes anyhow. Perhaps posters who have children who are mistaken for foxes by local dogs should try bathing and combing them more often?

Foxes, much like dogs, will only fight if it is essential to survival. Injury could result in a slow and painful death, they are evolutionarily aware of this, so only take the risk when the reward is big enough to outweigh the risk, going toe to toe with a pet dog or cat is not a big enough reward.

My smallish sized dog and the rather large fox that frequents my front garden have long and intense staring sessions. Large fox used to visit our back garden before we moved here (says my neighbour) but now refuses. He is bold and will sit in my front garden but neither dog nor fox will approach one another. I was a bit worried because my dog is soppy and I had visions of him being attacked.

Apparently if you pee around your garden it will deter them.

Worth a go maybe?

I finding it disgusting that people seem to think they have more right to be around than another animal.

This is a fox dying of poison. Is this really what you want to do to a living creature?

If you truly want to poison them, you should have to watch them suffer and die.

I think that the op has now said that she won't use poison.

I live in a very rural hamlet & had 2 cats & wandering chucks. 1 of my cats suffered a protracted, awful death; the vet thought she'd caught a mouse that had eaten poison. I sat day & night putting water into her with a syringe as the vet thought she might pull through, but she didn't. Now 1 of our 5 neighbours is talking about putting down rat poison again because he says that another neighbour has rats in their barn. Terrible, so afraid for my remaining girl.

That said, urban foxes are totally different from wild foxes; when I see them on the news they look semi-domesticated compared to the wild animal. I don't understand the love that people have for foxes or badgers. Foxes will go on a killing spree & rip apart all the chucks in the hen house. Badgers do attack the new born lambs. You can tell when a badger' s killed a lamb because it has a small circular bite in its side; the badger just eats the kidney & liver & then leaves the rest. At least the red kites get a feed I suppose.

I don't think that anyone would seriously want these animals killing to extinction, but they do seem to be taking over now that they are so protected. I'd call environmental health tomorrow open & see what they can do.

OP you don't deserve much of the abuse you've got on this thread you're clearly at the end of your tether and given your description of the havoc the foxes are causing you, this is entirely understandable. Some excellent suggestions above, my parents have used the sonic deterrent with excellent results.

Anyone who lives in the countryside will have been brought up with the view that foxes are vermin, unfortunately this view is (mostly) not shared by people in urban areas, who see so little wildlife that prefer to encourage them and make pets out of them. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I am wrong but it seems that urban foxes have become much more of a problem since fox hunting was banned

Some of the posters on this thread have amazed me. I wonder if they'd be quite so understanding if their DCs were amongst the many that have been attacked by foxes. Perhaps not. It's very easy to be high and mighty (and post unhelpful Facebook style sad photos) when you're not living with the problem. Your neighbours ABVVU to be feeding them and I'd look into whether this constitutes anti social behaviour - they are wilfully causing a problem that the council may well be called in to sort out

So yes YABU to poison them (though I'd be sorely tempted in your shoes) but YANBU to want them to stop visiting your property

Many dc that have been attacked?

There have been a very small number of attacks. With any species there will always be the odd one who appears to attack for no reason (there's always a reason, usually the reason is people). The chances of that happening in OP's garden are minimal. She has a much higher chance of encountering a killer seagull.

Seagulls are bastards. They terrorise our town every year at around this time. I've seen people asking for the council to move babies on to less built up areas (the council refuse) I've never heard of anyone wanting to poison them. There is a very real risk that a seagull will cause injury to a child or elderly person. Not so much with foxes.

The seagull in our area is a pathetic mother. I've seen children chase cats away from her baby, while she merely watched from above. How she successfully raises chick after chick each year amazes me.