Should I keep the foxes?

[Howandwhy]

Two foxes visit my garden every day and night and have been coming daily since they were cubs. They ruin my kids garden toys and bite my pumpkins. I know the entry point is under the fence (although I've seen one jump over the fence), so I had planned to block it and add to the height of the fence as well as making it fox proof. A friend advised me that if I get rid of the foxes there will be nothing to keep rats and mice at bay. There was a rat infestation in the garden around 10 years ago but I haven't seen any sign of them since then. Do you think the foxes are keeping the rats/mice away? I'd rather put up with the foxes if that's the case! Thanks for your advice/experience in advance!

Cats do not usually kill rats unless starving - link. A pet moggy will have no incentive to take on a big, bitey rat.

(Sorry - replied to the wrong post)

Well... I've lived in this same house well over 30 years and we've never had foxes in the garden. As far as I know, although we have had mice, we have never been troubled by rats.

So I'm not really sure why you've been advised that a garden without foxes in it would then have a rat problem.

foxes are slowly destroying our garden furniture (and anything else left in the garden) but I kinda like having them around... but shame about the poo, digging and destruction.

We have a den of them living at the bottom of our garden. No trouble for us (although they stole my husbands shoes once). Never seen a rat. The dog is on constamt high alert looking out for them though - they are very bold and come right up to the windows looking in.

Ps we and neoghbours all have cats. Foxy and his family doesn't care.

Be careful what you wish for. We have them and its terrible. They pooh all over the lawn, the last one we had to clean up had worms in it!
They also take anything left out in the garden, shoes garden gloves, toys etc they knock over milk bottles, steal eggs that's have been left by the milkman. Knock over garden plants etc.
They may look nice but I reality they are a nuisance!

we live in a SE London borough and there are loads of foxes. We see them walking down the pavement in the daytime, and there are often two young foxes in our garden. They don’t even move when I come out of the house, they’re that comfortable in the garden.

Never had rats (not sure of the two things are linked), but the foxes are destructive. They play on the trampoline, they claw at the football goal nets (we’ve tried treating the nets and it makes no difference) and completely destroy a new net in two weeks), poo everywhere and puncture anything left outside like a football. I could never leave a covered inflatable paddling pool out overnight, for example.

Foxes are lovely. If they're chewing toys, get an outdoor storage bin and chuck them in

The foxes in my garden seem to leave the rats alone.

Foxes are not lovely.

Yes they are 🥰

We used to have foxes....they weren't ours but "neighbourhood" foxes and visited a lot of gardens.

Great fun to watch and a lot less hassle than some of the flipping neighbours. I don't remember them being pests.🦊

Definitely keep the foxes as rats and mice are their staple diet. My mum used to have an urban rat problem until the foxes showed up - she feeds 2 every night, just snacks tho so they’re not dependent. The rats disappeared almost overnight and have never come back. And as someone else has said please don’t block up your garden, there’s likely to be hedgehogs coming in and out too. We have 2 hedgehogs that live under my studio and I feed them every night. There is now a network of “hedgehog highways” around our garden and seeing them coming and going is one of the highlights of our life here. Plus they keep the garden free of slugs and stuff so it’s a win-win.

This is not true for urban foxes. Analysis of stomach contents has shown that over half of their food intake was 'anthropogenic' - ie human leftovers, garbage and food 'helpfully' left out by people feeding them (which, btw, itself encourages rats). A lot else was insects and fruits and some small birds. Rodents didn't even make the list.

Same. They must have agreed some sort of protection racket with the dogs, because ours mainly ignore them. There is the occasional half-hearted bit of barking, but it's clearly performative.

#teamfox

There are foxes in my garden, they are super bold and live happily enough with my cats. They do bring in presents like old shoes and deflated footballs which I could do without but they are very beautiful.

They've probably got the rats and mice covered too Tbf so less need for a neighbourhood fox 😆

We have fox proofed our back yard due to their urinating and defecating ( it stinks) , smashing of tender plants and destroying anything on ground level which is of organic origin/ smells of human or animal eg shoes, unwashed clothes etc. No rats so far.

Also think of hedgehogs who need to be able to move around gardens

We had rats in the garden until a young fox started to visit the garden a few months ago (we've seen 2 actually). We haven't seen a rat since. I leave food for the foxes, too - raw chicken drumsticks and jam sandwiches (foxes love sweet stuff). I love to see them.

Tell that to my hefty bruiser boy who brings me large, intact dead rats just to show me what he’s been up to that day! I’d rather he just told me, we don’t need daily show and tell

Foxes don't have a natural predator.

Well this is a mixed bag, thanks everyone!

I do have a hedgehog visitor and an owl (that's gone rather quiet since the start of summer) in the garden, as well as several nests of robins.
I would rather the foxes than rats, so I'm worried that some of you are saying that you have fox's AND rats visit your garden! We have had rats in the garden in the past but pest control got rid of them.

The foxes are a nuisance and as from tonight theve decided to take set in the front garden. They drag all types of crap in (shoes, bike seat covers, toys, Mop head and actual in tact eggs etc and poo everywhere. I didnt think about using a net to cover my pumpkins, does that really work?

I have a camera but it irritates me seeing them all over the closed trampoline, then i dont want the kids to use it.

My back garden backs onto a huge open land green space so it's hard to avoid foxes.

I really appreciate the feedback, so it looks like I'll have to keep them for now, as more of you are saying they keep you rat free than those saying that it makes no difference!

Thank you all!