Any ideas how I could gently discourage Mr Badger from trashing my garden?

[Springersrock]

We have a badger family living in the field next to our house.

Over the last couple of weeks they’ve started coming into my back garden - not a problem particularly, other than they’re bashing great big holes in the fences.

They’re bashing through both sides to get into NDN’s garden, then bashing through the fence at the end of his garden to get to a footpath - that runs from their field anyway

Every time we mend a hole, they make a new one

We’ve got a dog so I need to keep the garden secure

Plus, they’re driving doggo mad at night as he can hear them and he’s bloody barking

We’ve lived here 12 years and they’ve never come into our back garden before, I don’t think we’ve done anything to piss them off and there’s been no changes to their usual route so I would quite like to stop them vandalising the joint.

Thanks!

i don’t think you’ll win, they have their set routes and your fence is in the way!
Could you fence a smaller section off for the dog, or do a temporary fence you remove at night?

Do you have leather jackets in your lawn? These were the reason for my lawn destruction- I believe badgers love them. I think they can be controlled by nematodes which would give the badgers less reason to visit

Thanks

I’ve not seen anything in the lawn, will have a look and see what I can find. The lawn’s not looking great, but I think that’s mostly down to no rain

It’s a whole new thing for them - they seem to be using the garden as a short cut, but there’s far more effort involved in vandalising my fences than using the gate and path from the field they’ve always used

One of the other neighbours suggested putting chicken wire all along the lower half of the fence but I’m worried they might hurt themselves with it

Perhaps I should go out in hi-vis and do some badger traffic control

Oh, and just to add, I’ve checked all along their usual route - nothing is blocking it, no one has done any diy or moved anything. It’s all exactly the same as it’s always been

Am I missing something? Why would you have a leather jacket in your lawn? Bit random. Is it a typo?

. I was a bit confused too so had to google - they’re daddy long leg larvae

No advice but following. We've got one, more, who knows digging under our fence every night and through to ndn.

Dog also been driven crazy.

We're blocking the holes every morning but they're just coming through I another place instead.

And we don't live near fields we live in a terrace in London so I have no idea where they are actually living!

Leather jackets are a type of bug, I think they turn into some sort of fly:)

If you use chicken wire, it's best to dig a trench to bury the bottom portion of the wire, but have you tried lion's poo from your local zoo?

Leather jackets 🙄🙄🙄

Https:www.tealturf.co.uk/cms/images/leatherjacket_large.jpg

Tried to find one of a badger in a leather jacket but failed

We love our badgers, especially as they keep the slug population down. A bit like hedgehogs, they do need access points in walls and fences. They are pretty good climbers and can get over stone walls especially, but otherwise will bash through or dig under. The big difference this year is the weather. Food and water is becoming scarce in some areas. Could this be your answer OP?

We went to a local farm the other day and the farmer was telling us he had lost a number of his poultry to a badger, the weather has been so hot and dry the badger had been unable to find bugs etc to eat so had resorted to attacking and eating his turkeys and chickens.

Badgers can behave differently if dehydrated. We saw this in the hot summer of 2003. Wet food and water was much harder to come by, so they were more likely to dig up lawns and so on to try to get to it. You could try putting out fresh water for them every night, somewhere strategic. A washing up bowl is ideal.

Found one for you Ulaanbaator

Have you thought of the ultra sonic noise emitting boxes that deter foxes etc- you could just leave it on over night so it doesn't bother your dog.

Thanks!

I’ll try leaving some water on the field side of the fence

They don’t seem to actually be doing anything in my garden - just using it as a cut through.

I’ll see if I can attach a diagram

Just to add, it would be good if anyone with badgers could put out a spill-proof bowl of water daily this summer. Another good thing to use is a large metal dog bowl. They would also eat wet cat or dog food (not dry biscuits in the summer, as these will increase dehydration). As with water, the food might decrease the damage and disruption you're experiencing. They're probably getting a little desperate OP.

Orange line shows his new route

Green line shows his old route

There’s nothing to suggest they’re doing anything in the garden, other than cutting through

We’ve seen them doing it several times

I could leave some dog food and water out on his side of the fence

Will give it a try tonight

Thanks!

Peachydream 😆

Sniggering at the leather jackets. Thank you for educating me

We had terrible problems with badgers last summer. Nothing worked until we contacted the local badgers' protection group who recommended... an electric fence. It works! If we leave it off for a few nights, the badger sometimes comes back, so we've used it all year. Only goes on at night, when our cat is locked in, and we switch it off in the morning. Warned our neighbours. It's pretty low so can be stepped over very easily. Hurts the badger but won't injure it.
It seems a drastic step but nothing else worked.

Badgers are incredibly hard on fences and will bash a new hole right next to an existing one if they feel like it! They will punch right through standard chick wire. Horizontal treated boards (with at least 8 inches below soil level) on the bottom couple of feet of the fence would work, as would proper 'badger gauge' weld mesh wire with a similar portion buried below ground.

A cheaper and simpler method is to string a metal electric wire around the fence at badger nose height and have it connected to a powerful fencing unit: they don't like getting zapped

Thanks!

I’ve left some food and water out on their side of the fence for tonight.

See if that helps, if not I can borrow some electric fencing from a friend

So the food and water didn’t help

And they’ve bashed a new bloody hole right next to the one we didn’t have time to repair yesterday.

Electric fence it is!!!!!

They love peanuts and potatoes so you could pulling them back somewhere else with those. Agree it's probably the weather that's causing issues.

They won't hurt themselves on chicken wire but they also won't take any notice of it so it's pretty pointless.