Neighbour cultivating fox den

[Sunnyday14558]

Our neighbour has actively been getting foxes to nest in her garden. We live on the outskirts of a city so I’m not entirely sure why she’s luring them into a semi detached property from woodland half a mile away. Anyhow, we now have a family living in her garden and the noise at night is keeping us awake. We have two children under 4 and have found a dead rat in their play area and fox poo all over the lawn. The patio also stinks from fox wee so we can’t open our windows downstairs. I literally have no idea what to do as we’ve tried fox deterrents before and nothing seems to work. I want to confront her about it but I’m pretty sure she’ll accuse me of being mean to the foxes. A someone please give me some thoughts on how to approach this? Is encouraging foxes to live in an urban garden really kind for them? I ask because it sounds like they’re ripping each other apart at night with the fighting.

What have you tried so far? We had problems with foxes digging up our lawn. We live in London and have a lot of neighbours feeding them or otherwise not putting rubbish away properly and they were really becoming a nuisance. We bought a solar operated fox deterrent which worked well.

Similar to this

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Now we have a very feisty territorial cat which works even better. Foxes don’t go anywhere near our garden now.

Fox proof your garden so they can't get in?

Your neighbour is allowed to enjoy their garden as much as you want to enjoy your own.
If that includes making space for wildlife, then there isn't anything wrong with that. Her garden is clearly more appealing to them than the woodland near by for what ever reason.

I live in a small seaside town and I get foxes in my garden every night!

One of our neighbours has an overgrown garden (she lives abroad and seems to have just let that house and garden fall apart) and I assume they have made their dens there.

I often wake up to damaged plant pots, plants having been taken out of my pond and scattered on the lawn and so on but honestly it no longer bothers me.

It is so nice to have wildlife and the foxes I have managed to see lounging in my garden are just too cute to worry about...

Foxes are a menace. Don’t forget they have been known to attack babies - there are several reports if you google. https://news.sky.com/story/fox-could-have-ripped-baby-to-pieces-in-attack-at-familys-home-11250657

Someone writing in the Guardian who had trouble with foxes wrote that in terms of a deterrent, “Most effective of all, however, has been the most hi-tech solution – a passive infrared device connected to a garden hose which senses motion, triggering a quick and noisy arc of water towards the intruder.”

The smell wipes out any cuteness as far as I am concerned. And poo everywhere

Do you mean your neighbour is feeding the foxes?

You can't really actively get them to nest, they'll either dig themselves a den or they won't.

My neighbour has an overgrown garden and the foxes have been returning to the den for years, so I feel for you because the noise and the smell is awful.

But other than have a word, I'm not sure what you can do.

How do you even fox-proof a garden?

My dog disappeared late at night and when calling him, my neighbour popped out her bedroom window and said 'Your dog is eating my fox food with medicine in it!'
She had put mange medicine in it. I was furious.
Fortunately the dog was fine but still, what a selfish t*at.

I would love it if my neighbor did this!

Ok.

Is your neighbour the poster from a couple of weeks ago who got upset that her DH didn’t feed the local fox for her while she was away? There can’t possibly be two of these prats around, can there?!

So your dog was in her garden eating food she left out? Why?
Giving foxes medication for mange isn't selfish, it's kind.

YANBU

My downstairs neighbour lures squirrels into her flat. I'm sure she thinks it's lovely interacting with nature but she doesn't seem to think about the impact on the building or how dangerous it is for the squirrels either.

The Fox Project will have advice

It's dangerous for the wildlife.

And can cause numerous problems with pets, wildlife attacking humans because they have no natural fear anymore.

Can even cause structural damage to gardens, outbuildings and houses.

Foxes eat rats.

We get foxes. Doesn’t bother us in the slightest. Yes there is some poo. But no smells. And I don’t live in fear of anyone being attacked. They would be more terrified of humans than anything.

Since mankind has decided to own every small piece of land, cut down endless woods to build houses it is no surprise we come into contact with other animals.

We do share the world with other species. It isn’t ours to own by ourselves. Although we are doing a fine job of frankly doing that and messing it up into the bargain.

Wildlife is as wildlife does, and if you are going to have a wildlife-friendly garden (as we all should), then you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Not entirely sure anyone should be actively encouraging foxes to leave their natural habitat and move into domestic gardens though.

She put food out in a shared space? Or your dog let itself into her garden?

Her front garden has no boundaries, kind of open plan and fronts onto an open grass area/footpath where dogs are walked.

Dog is greedy, smelt the food and dashed off. Husband said it looked like a pile of cat food had been emptied on the ground. Dog thought it was his lucky day.

Lol I was reading through to see if this was asked - I was going to ask if her neighbour has cats and did she leave her husband at home for a few days recently who couldn’t be arsed (realised his wife was insane more like) to feed it/them?

If not, maybe that poster can come on here and explain their thought process?

The foxes will settle wherever they wish. I had some make a den under my shed. I wasn’t feeding them.

The rat is probably nothing to do with foxes as they would have eaten it.

The sprinkler idea might work?

Foxes are fine, but fox charities/rescue/wildlife experts do not recommend feeding foxes, they do absolutely fine on their own and they are not endangered. Main reason is they become too reliant, what happens when your neighbour goes on holiday, moves or dies?!

She's trying to be kind but she isn't. Foxes also as the OP knows, don't understand that one garden is fine, next doors isn't, not the foxes fault but will seriously piss off neighbours. They dig lawns looking for grubs, chew plants, poop their sticky black poop as scent markers, wee everywhere. No they better where they were for relations.

As you can tell, my neighbour 4 doors down feeds them. My once healthy (endangered) hedgehog population has all gone, never forget the sound of a hedgehog screaming at 3am, while being attacked. Seen hedgehog bodies eaten from the belly. My neighbour is a tosser. Just let nature be.

OP, only way to stop them, 95% of the time is to buy the expensive cat proof netting for your fences.

We had foxes living in our garden and didn’t have any issues at all, a bit of poo yes, but I cleaned it up when I cleaned up after the dog. No smell at all. Are you sure it’s fox urine? Never had dead rats despite also having rats in the garden, big garden

My neighbour does this as well- even has dog bowls for them. It’s absolute batshit. They are vermin. Following for solutions