to beg you for your fox solutions

[WinterDeWinter]

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.

Yes they are great. Also the National Fox Welfare Society will send out treatment for foxes with mange (You put a few drops on a jam sandwich each night). We had one here in a sorry state, I’ve been doing this for about 3 weeks now and I can already see new fur coming through and he looks a lot chubbier too. (Sorry, not sorry to all the fox haters on this thread 😁).

They don’t kill for ‘sport’ (human beings are the only animals to do that). They kill all the chickens so they can cache them for later but they invariably get frightened off coming back to collect all the hens from their kill.

Oh o.k.That's what I will tell my devastated dc's next time our hen house is raided.

There is always one🙄

There certainly is. In this instance, though, it appears to be you.

Maybe you should tell your DC you didn’t secure the hen house properly knowing there are foxes around? Rather than blaming it on, you know, a wild animal following its instincts 🤷‍♀️

Let the dogs go out and see them off.

@Namechange666 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 and again 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 if you think these imaginary wildlife rescue organisations give a shit about urban foxes.
Bless you.

They don’t like vinegar. I had a fox that was urinating up against a wall in a courtyard space. It took me ages to work out what it was. I diluted vinegar in a spray bottle with water and sprayed it all around and it hasn’t been back there. Whether that would work on a lawn I don’t know but I’m going to try it as soon as the weather improves as there is a fox fouling mine.

We are trying the used coffee grounds on the flower beds trick atm. It works ok.

Well the dog hasn't eaten any recently or spay any out on the kitchen floor recently 🤢🤢🤢

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.

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.

@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.

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

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

@CantDealwithChristmas hahahah yes!

@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!

https://www.diy.com/departments/pestbye-jet-spray-battery-operated-motion-activated-cat-scarer-repellent-animal-repeller/5055372304640_BQ.prd?&&&&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0MexBhD3ARIsAEI3WHIl31TvL2mZBFWFxYyGFACN7c-Xk-M57_YMizeKJErXK1xBdJ_IbpkaAsKLEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Tagging @RamblingAroundTheInternet and @DPotter in the above question…

Chilli flakes work

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.

do chilli flakes seem to affect pets @theDudesmummy ?

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!

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.

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.

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

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 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.