Help - foxes??

[ineedsleepineedsleep]

Help needed please! Our garden is being attacked and I need to identify the culprit and then fight back...

Last week we found a selection of holes in the garden, around 10cm deep which we assumed was an animal digging. This morning my herb garden has been completely destroyed / dug up - fortunately I have managed to unearth & replant a lot of the buried herbs but how do I stop it happening again??

During the sleuthing I have also spotted poo in the garden so I think all of this points to foxes. Help! What do people recommend for keeping them away?

Photos attached of holes, herb garden & poo for sleuthing support.

www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife/how-identify/identify-poo

could it be a badger? with the herbs could you replant into pots instead or hanging baskets? You could try constructing a frame over the raised bed. If you have a security camera it would be really interesting to set it overnight and see who the culprit is

The poo looks like fox , but the other digging and lawn destruction looks more like badger work , we had a newly laid lawn in a house we were selling and many mornings it looked like a ploughed field after the badgers had been active looking for worms etc , we researched and found that you can put them off an area be spraying human male pee around the edges of the plot where they are likely to enter from , DP kindly obliged and this saw a much reduced activity from them , maybe you could try that ? , we found it needed a top up about once a week or after a rain

Hmm interesting, I hadn't even considered the possibility of badgers. Would they climb up into a raised herb garden then do you think? I imagine a badger to be relatively ground-bound but Dr Google tells me they are good climbers...

DP has ordered some ultrasonic device things (which are primarily targeted at foxes I think!) so will see if that makes any difference. If not I will see if I can persuade him to pee in the garden

Maybe we should set up a camera & see if we can spot them! I'm not sure I've ever seen a badger in the wild before...

Badger poo apparently has a "sweet and musky" smell - so there's your first job after breakfast

A trail camera in the garden would certainly clinch it for you. When we set up ours, we found we had 8 cats that we didn't know about, and not one but two foxes.

Foot prints would also help. Fox prints are rather like dog. Badger prints are broad, with 5 toes, mainly in a line across the front of the print, rather than arrange in a sort of semi-circle like dog/fox.

It's definitely fox poo. The holes look like they've been dug by foxes too.

I have the same problems and have tried everything. The sonic boxes work for a few days then not at all. The stuff like scoot works a little but not long term. I've not tried men's pee so don't know if that works better.

To deter them, I always fill in the holes. They sometimes reappear but I just keep filling them. Try and compact them down. Put stones in deep holes.
To stop digging in my raised beds I've had to lay a plastic brown mesh on the soil and then plant through it. This works well. I keep my flower beds full so less room for the foxes to get in and dig.

Good luck.

yes, looks like fox to me.
they take up the lawn to look for grub.
and they dig to build dens and to find food.

do you have smellies (those unwanted christmas gifts?) chilli & garlic powder (cheap from asian supermarkets) also helps.

I agree that it looks like the work of foxes. I've just had my garden turfed and huge areas are dying (wherever the fox has been leaving us presents). I've tried everything and nothing seems to work. It tore down my cage around my veg and it just poos and pees all over the place. The footprint you've posted also looks the same. Thin like a dogs.

Finally tried the male pee trick and it has now decided to poo in the front garden instead. I read about it on a farming website and so far it has seemed to be helping. Now to reseed the dead turf

so far it has helped/ seems to be helping*^. Excuse my English.

Update!! More poo has appeared which to my (very) untrained eye this time looks like badger poo...

However, to hopefully solve the mystery, DP has rigged a camera up in the garden. Fingers crossed they will reappear tonight & then at least I'll know what we're dealing with!

Try trapping some paw prints - take a large piece of cardboard, cover it with kitchen foil, hold it over a candle flame to cover it all with soot, put a dab of peanut butter in the middle, and hope a badger is tempted and leaves his prints.

Did you ever discover who your late night visitor is OP?

I came home one day to find a pile of soil on the path & loads of bees buzzing around. This was on a tiered terrace. Closer inspection revealed a large hole under one of the sleepers where a bees nest had been dug out. A Google search revealed that this was probably the work of a badger. So yes, a badger in an unlikely spot, if there's something they like they'll make sure they get it.

Whoops sorry for the delay in update! Wasn't sure if people were quite as interested in the saga as I am

So in short yes, WiFi cameras rigged up outside confirm that foxes are the culprits. More than one a lot of the time & they come into the garden most nights. I have managed to protect my herb garden with a combo of netting plus some vicious rose stems whilst we figure out how to persuade them our garden isn't worth bothering about...

We are currently experimenting with some ultrasonic devices which sadly don't appear to have had that much of a impact.

BUT I have also (through a second strategically placed camera) discovered that they stroll in under our side gate. So next step is chicken wire before we can replace the gate with something full length!!