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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Original poster

A fox in my garden

42 replies

Nikki037297 · 25/03/2022 12:22

Last night after spending most of my day gardening as we have been having some good weather at last I decided I’d sit out the front garden while it got dark as it was still warm. I sat there with my partner for a few hours just chatting, it was super peaceful. We live in a quiet cul de sac on the out skirts of the city but more closer to the country side. We decided we would go in around 9:45pm. We went in and as I was closing my bedroom curtains I seen a fox in my garden sniffing around and then it left. I checked my cctv and it was indeed a fox. Iv never seen a fox around here before but it made me a little worried. If we were to still be sat outside would this fox have made any attempt to come and hurt us? Or are foxes more scared of us?

OP posts:
TeaStory · 25/03/2022 12:29

Urban foxes might watch you in case you drop some food, but a country fox generally won't want to approach. Foxes don't attack people.

ajandjjmum · 25/03/2022 12:32

@TeaStory

Urban foxes might watch you in case you drop some food, but a country fox generally won't want to approach. Foxes don't attack people.
They have been known to attack babies.
ClariceQuiff · 25/03/2022 12:33

We have a regular fox and vixen - they don't bother us at all; nor did they bother my (small) dog if we let him out while they were there.

smartiecake · 25/03/2022 12:35

They will be very scared of you and will keep their distance. We have loads of foxes and we have had cubs drinking out of our garden pond and foxes asleep in the garden in the daytime. They won't hurt you they are just looking for food

TeaStory · 25/03/2022 12:36

They have been known to attack babies.

That's extremely rare, it has only happened once I know of and I believe there are a lot of question marks over it. There are far far riskier things for babies than a fox in the garden, and the OP didn't mention a baby anyway.

TroysMammy · 25/03/2022 12:46

I watch the one that visits my garden on cctv. The joy he had bouncing from one raised bed to the other was fun to watch. He enjoyed it so much he brought a friend to have a look the next night.

Dougieowner · 25/03/2022 12:56

Had them nightly in our previous house, we were right on the edge of the village and they just wandered around quite happily. Very timid, will usually run if they see you.
One came into the house one evening but ran out as soon as it saw me.
Personally I wouldn't have any issues if I saw them in my garden.

PoleFairy · 25/03/2022 12:58

We have lots of foxes all the time in our quiet road. they will happily come into the end of our garden whilst we have been sat eating on the patio. I worry a bit about my cat but in the early evenings they seem to sit together quite a bit without really paying each other much notice

Patienceisntvirtuous · 25/03/2022 13:00

I'm so jealous! I'd love to see a fox around my garden.
No it won't try to hurt you. I find the question a bit hard to comprehend to be honest!

A580Hojas · 25/03/2022 13:01

I see foxes every day without fail where I live in London. I do not find them charming or appealing in any way.

WellTidy · 25/03/2022 13:02

I would be surprised if there was ever a night when we didn’t have fixed in our garden. But we are in a town centre. They’re incredibly fearless here, you see them walking down the middle of the road in the daytime. I have never experienced one approaching us though.

Haus1234 · 25/03/2022 13:06

We have at least half a dozen London foxes that come in and out of our garden, they aren’t scared of us but they are maybe a little scared / wary of our cats. I would be very surprised if they hurt anyone.

Pepsipepsi · 25/03/2022 13:18

Foxes are wonderful. They live in the fields behind our semi-rural garden and we see/hear them most nights. They mainly keep their distance but it's such a thrill when they come close to our hedge when it gets later in the day. My heart stops from the excitement! They mostly eat their own foraged food but get a few eggs, bread and scraps people leave out. Enjoy them OP. Nothing to be scared of. 😊

AppleButter · 25/03/2022 13:18

You don’t have to worry - they are sprightly and will bolt. They are just hungry, at this time of the year it is also hunger season. Was there any bird food or nuts lying around in your garden, or hedgehogs or mice? If you want to reduce their visits, make sure there is no food lying around, and also beware of eating any garden produce from ground level due to worms. Gross ones. I tend to leave some nuts out for foxes and badgers in extreme weather to make sure they
Don’t starve and dont eat all the hedghogs. Beautiful, elegant creatures, sometimes they dance in the moonlight.
If you have foxes you won’t have a rat problem :) and unless you leave a newborn baby unattended for long periods of time , naked on the lawn, with a tasty full nappy, they will not approach. (I think in the scaremongering reports, are funded by the foxhunting lobby so take them with a pinch of salt) foxes have been around longer than we have so it is us encroaching on their territory, razing their forests, not vice versa.

AppleButter · 25/03/2022 13:18

@Pepsipepsi ❤️❤️❤️

nearlyspringyay · 25/03/2022 13:31

We've always got foxes in our garden. They like to sit on the shed and torment DDog.

StrawberryLollipops · 25/03/2022 13:44

We had a fox family in the garden backing on to our garden as it was overgrown and had been left for years.

In the spring/summer the young ones would be playing - footballs left out would eventually get completely chewed up. Grin
It was like watching National Geographic in my little London semi backyard! Never had a problem though.

Fernandina · 25/03/2022 13:48

There's a reason that you didn't see the fox until after you'd gone in. It was scared of you, and waited for you to leave before it approached your garden.

ClaudiaWankleman · 25/03/2022 13:50

It's so vanishingly unlikely that the fox would hurt you, especially unprovoked. If you cornered it and it really had nowhere to go (also unlikely as they're great climbers and very flexible) it would probably lash out as a last resort, much as any animal would.

They're amazing animals. We have some at my allotment site that run around in the daytime. They're very perceptive.

dodobookends · 25/03/2022 13:50

My cousin lives in the USA and gets wolves and mountain lions in his garden. Now that is something to be worried about.

A little fox in your garden come to eat worms? Nah.

AppleButter · 25/03/2022 21:19

Btw foxes really love the suet balls you can buy for birds. Badgers too. And are generally grateful and reticent.

dudsville · 25/03/2022 21:22

We live in an area with lots of foxes in a close knit community of neighbours. They've not hurt any of us or our pets, but they are "wild" and that needs to be respected.

Gowithme · 25/03/2022 21:34

I love seeing foxes. Loathe the hunt but even without it the fucking game keepers on the big estates round here just kill everything. Bastards. You are so lucky to have had one in your garden.

AKASammyScrounge · 26/03/2022 00:06

My father felt sorry for an old greying fox with a limp and fed him scraps every day One summer the fox came on to the lawn at the back of the house and lay down in the sun. Minutes later a female with two cubs joined him. The female sat to the side but the cubs played together in the sunshine, rolling about and running and jumping. They were beautiful to see .
When my Dad was in hospital, the fox never once showed up. Dad fretted about him but we reckoned something had happened to him. Finally, Dad came home to die. He had a bed in front of the big picture window where he could see his garden. And the fox reappeared. He sat in the middle of the lawn, staring at the window. Dad was sinking fast.
When he died the fox got up and walked away.and never came back.lt was just a little bit creepy.

ArcticFoxFamily · 26/03/2022 00:13

My family has always had problems with foxes in the garden. My grammy was always frightened to death of them and would scream the house down when she saw one. My grampy on the other hand was nature's best friend and encouraged feeding them (which I wouldn't have done but he's a kind soul). One night a swarm of foxes found their way into the house while my gram and gramp were sleeping and tore the front room up and opened the fridge! They were scratching at the bedroom door trying to get inside and my gramma was screaming bloody murder. It was just obviously an accident with the poor housing structure they had back then. But frightening story. Anyway foxes are usually more scared of humans , just don't socialise x