Foxes in neighbour's abandoned garden

[kingat]

Hi all, I am hoping to find some advice on the following problem.
We live next to an empty house. The owners live somewhere near, but hardly ever show up.
The garden is a jungle, the jungle overgrows into mine, some plant with strong branches grows in between my hedge panels and I am worried it will get damaged.
For some time now I suspected foxes live there, there was so much rumbling in the evening, but today I saw two, in the afternoon? they looked young and not scared of me at all, but I am scared of them!!!
I have young child and summer is coming and now I am worried about my DC being alone in the garden for a sec. What if a group of them attacks us.
What can I do????

What? Bloody educate yourself.

I blame Beatrix Potter for the fox fear!

Foxes are scared of llamas. You could get a llama? My dad had one in the field with his free range hens to keep the foxes at bay years ago.

ffs others have said far worse

I think you need help. Foxes are amazing animals who have a right to be here. They have been around for longer than us. I leave food every night for our fox who comes and takes it back to whoever he lives. You need to get a grip you sound neurotic !

I'd rather have foxes in the garden than the stench of a blokes piss

i would absolutely LOVE this!! They won’t hurt you, they’re scared & just trying to get by in a world that is no longer suited to them☹️ I never heard a real story where a group of foxes attacked a family, it just doesn’t happen!

This might be good advice for various reasons, but none of them include foxes.

Last year mum brought her baby foxes and they played on the lawn with a ball
Oh, wow! 😍

They’re not that timid here … my cat has been chased 3 or 4 times that I’ve seen and a small dog was killed locally last year. I’ve had a young fox walk in my sitting room through open French doors… I’m not sure who was more surprised. I don’t think they’d attack a person but they make a huge mess getting in the food bins, crap everywhere and steal anything left out ( shoes etc)

You can report the overgrown garden to your local council and if they think it is damaging property or likely to attract pests, they can make the owner tidy it. Bonus points if it starts growing an invasive species.

I've been working in a fox hospital for over 4 years now. In that time, I have never been bitten, attacked or caught mange (or any other ailment).

These are photos I've taken of patients. There's no barrier, nothing separating us and no zoom used. Terrifying aren't they?

Oh god, please just leave them in peace.

Foxes live at the bottom of our garden. I have put in an anti fox sonar repellent- it didn't work. Nor did Scoot, an anti fox formula you mix with water and spray where they live or access the garden.

Sometimes I really struggle with this world and the arrogance of the human race.
This has made me genuinely sad tonight.

We have foxes living at the bottom of our small garden, that's London for you. They mostly hang out on the roof of the neighbour's shed. It means I can't leave the guinea pigs out unattended but they've never shown any interest in my kids. They run away if we go into the garden. My 10 month old cat scares them off!

Ours were not in the best condition and my attempts to feed them mange treatment failed as the local magpies mugged them for the sandwiches. I think a neighbour may have had more luck as they do look slightly better now. No sign of cubs this year though.

We've had foxes living in a little hillock at the end of our garden for as long I have known. We hardly ever see them. Never been a problem, ever. We have two DCs and they love them too.

Thank you for those fantastic pics

I have a fox house/ wild wood at the bottom of my garden, they are daily entertainment.

OP fear not, just don't leave chickens alone in your garden and be sure to shut the hen house door at bedtime...

We live opposite a wood so get all sorts in our garden. Deer, badger, hedgehog, foxes the lot.

I second making sure your grass is kept short due to ticks. But I blame the hedge hogs for ticks personally Apart from.that and the poo they arent a issue. Unless your walking to the kebab van in next village in absolute pitch darkness when they sound like werewolves in the bushes. They are very, very noisy.

We had just this issue with the house next door but one.

The good news:
The foxes didn't attack anyone.

The bad news:
The foxes destroyed loads of stuff:
Chewed the straps off the trampoline safety net (can't replace due to pandemic supply issues) when we can it will be over £100
Ditto similar items in our neighbours garden
Rubber tubing beneath their camper van (sorry know nothing about cars!) replaced 3 times at almost £200 a pop
Raiding bins (not ours which are locked away) but dragging the filthy contents (eg: used nappies) into the garden
Shitting everywhere. Fox shit is much more difficult to remove than dog shit, it's perpetually diahorrea. It fucking stinks.
It all means we can't let our kids into our gardens without an effort to check and clean, every day.
They also trash plants but frankly that's the least of the issues.

Happy ending: New people moved in and the foxes went. I'm not sure how and why but we are mightily relieved.

Suddenly I need a new job.

Seriously OP, foxes are fantastic and great
fun to watch! They’re very curious and playful they wouldn’t attack you.

Count yourself lucky they are next door. I have the damn things in my garden and they are not cute, they are terrorist thugs directly descended from Atilla the Hun via Vlad the Impaler whose purpose in life is to destroy my garden. Do not leave any small objects like shoes, gloves or toys lying in your garden because mummy fox will take them for the cubs to play with. Today I bagged up a baby shoe, a child’s welly and a shuttlecock as well as the remains of a takeaway and half a packet of hot dogs.

Don't need to be scared of them op!

mugged by magpies 😆

Fox shit is much more difficult to remove than dog shit, it's perpetually diahorrea.

It really isn't. Trust me, I've spent 4 years cleaning out foxes. It's just as easy to remove and it's actually no different from that of a similar size dog apart the smell. Now badger shit....that's more yucky. I hate cleaning out badgers. 🙄

When the fox does a terror campaign of repeatedly shitting in my garden I put chilli power down on the entry / exit ( our gate, it's never shut) it works. Or it's a wonderful coincidence. They had a massive dump right by car every day for two weeks and that stopped them. However cute they are, you do not want to walk their crap into your car....

@HundredMilesAnHour

Erm, perhaps you are feeding your foxes a superior diet to the foxes next door to me but I can assure you it is mostly runny and stinks to high heaven. Any dog owner whose dog has rolled in it will attest to how awful it is.

I saw a fox once walking along with a bag of chips in its mouth, it just looked at me and carried on walking . 🍟