What to do about foxes? Help please! Post Reply

[young at heart]

Ugh. How on earth can I get rid of foxes in my garden? I have a female fox and her two cubs basking in the evening sun in my garden as I type this message ....

Please excuse following long winded account:-
Two years ago my neighbour had a fox give birth to cubs under her garden shed. Despite all her efforts the council were unable to help. foxes stayed for about 3 months and she then boarded up the shed to prevent them returning. During this time one cub actually walked into my kitchen where my then baby was happily lying on the floor on a play mat. Before I knew what happened my border terrier attacked fox and there was a very viscous scuffle in the kitchen. Baby totally unharmed, fox bitten and dog outraged. I called RSPCA who collected fox and informed me as cub was young he would recover well and would be released back into its natural environment ( ie Wandsworth common....!!!)

2 years later one of these cubs has returned to have her own cubs ( am told they often come back to breed as near as they can to the location they were born) and has had three cubs in the garden of my opposite neighbour ( an elderly lady with a perfect rambling garden- fox paradise) they have dug a hole under our connecting fence and flip between our two gardens. They have now started spitting at my dog who is going absolutely tonto in the garden and I am genuinely afraid the adult fox may get the better of her. My toddler is naturally my primary concern and of course never let him in the garden unsupervised
I honestly don't know what to do. Council will not help and foxes are a protected species. I can't leave out anything harmful( toddler and dog may eat it and to be honest as much as I hate foxes am not up for poisoning them notwithstanding its illegal ) am aware this is a viscous cycle as they will return again to breed next year.
I will help my elderly neighbour as much as I can to shoo them off her premises but they are so brazen and confident it beggars belief!!!!

Any advice?

[NicNacs]

Hi,

I would also be interested to hear advice... We have a couple of very brave foxes wandering around the garden during the day, I can't even leave the downstairs windows open as we've been warned one has previously jumped into a neighbours house. Bit of a worry with a baby in the house.

[Almaceti]

Get a cat? well I'm not sure that works all the time but we have only occasionnally had foxes in our garden and I have noticed that it was during periods where there were no cats around. as long as my neighbour's cats are around (they love our garden), no signs of foxes...

[bamse]

Have you tried a Foxwatch? We have one and I think it works as the foxes only seem to reappear when the batteries die. It makes a noise inaudible to humans that foxes dont like. I had heard that it can sometimes be heard by children by neither of mine seem to be affected. You can buy them on amazon or the garden centre in Wandsworth for around £50. Prior to that we tried loin poo pellets which did nothing! Although I read somewhere that you can buy lion dung from London zoo and its a very popular fox deterant (a bit of a trek for those south of the river though!)

Good luck. I feel for you as I also hate having to constantly be on the watch when we're in the garden.

[Annabel (admin)]

Story from the Evening Gazette today.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/f ... 99892.html

[nvmof3]

We had a real problem in the past. We were advised that my husband should pee in the garden regularly as that would make the mother feel vulnerable and move the babies. It seemed to work for a bit, but to be honest was not a long term solution! We bought one of those plug in sonic fox repellents which really helped. But the best thing was building a wall instead of a fence and putting really high trellis above all the walls with chicken wire attached behind. Now we see them walking along the wall behind the trellis to pass between our neighbours gardens but they don't come into ours. They also came into our house often but the final straw was my toddler crawling through fox poo.

[Orangetree]

Hi- I had the same problem in my garden. They would make an awful racket and during mating season it was unbearable.
Council was utterly useless, I called my friendly pest control guy who advised me put rags soaked in jeyes fluid by the shed and a few more around the garden hung from the fences. The smell of jeyes is strong and foxes do not like it so stay away (similar to earlier mail re peeing!) HOWEVER jeyes fluid is toxic to cats and if they come into contact with it through skin it will kill them so be careful where its put. Good luck, hope you get rid of the pesky buggers!

[Beketaten]

Hi- I had the same problem in my garden. They would make an awful racket and during mating season it was unbearable.
Council was utterly useless, I called my friendly pest control guy who advised me put rags soaked in jeyes fluid by the shed and a few more around the garden hung from the fences. The smell of jeyes is strong and foxes do not like it so stay away (similar to earlier mail re peeing!) HOWEVER jeyes fluid is toxic to cats and if they come into contact with it through skin it will kill them so be careful where its put. Good luck, hope you get rid of the pesky buggers!

For God's sake then, please do not put Jeyes Fluid out, anybody! What awful and irresponsible advice you were given by the pest control guy. A cat could get anywhere that a fox could. I don't even have a garden, or a cat, but the idea sickens me.

[Beketaten]

Hi- I had the same problem in my garden. They would make an awful racket and during mating season it was unbearable.
Council was utterly useless, I called my friendly pest control guy who advised me put rags soaked in jeyes fluid by the shed and a few more around the garden hung from the fences. The smell of jeyes is strong and foxes do not like it so stay away (similar to earlier mail re peeing!) HOWEVER jeyes fluid is toxic to cats and if they come into contact with it through skin it will kill them so be careful where its put. Good luck, hope you get rid of the pesky buggers!

For God's sake then, please do not put Jeyes Fluid out, anybody! What awful and irresponsible advice you were given by the pest control guy. A cat could get anywhere that a fox could. I don't even have a garden, or a cat, but the idea sickens me.

[Beketaten]

Hi- I had the same problem in my garden. They would make an awful racket and during mating season it was unbearable.
Council was utterly useless, I called my friendly pest control guy who advised me put rags soaked in jeyes fluid by the shed and a few more around the garden hung from the fences. The smell of jeyes is strong and foxes do not like it so stay away (similar to earlier mail re peeing!) HOWEVER jeyes fluid is toxic to cats and if they come into contact with it through skin it will kill them so be careful where its put. Good luck, hope you get rid of the pesky buggers!

For God's sake then, please do not put Jeyes Fluid out, anybody! What awful and irresponsible advice you were given by the pest control guy. A cat could get anywhere that a fox could. I don't even have a garden, or a cat, but the idea sickens me.

[Beketaten]

Argh, sorry, no idea why that posted three times

[morasmum]

We might be sharing the same family of foxes, they used to spend the early evening in my garden. We tried the wee trick and used ground pepper but that didn't work. Then we put moth balls next to the holes below the fence where they got in and where they used to poo and that did the trick they stayed away.

Good luck

[jstockham]

Hi all i own a pest control company called pest-a-lance and it is worrying some of the pour advice some pest firms give. No advice should be given with out a site survey which we give for free on all pest problems, the treatment can and should be one both parties are happy with plus all pros and cons explained in detail. As for foxes this needs careful surveying to see if the problem is one that can be solved with out wasting your money as removing the foxes from your garden will only allow a new urban fox to move in due to the large population in a small area. Proofing, sonic sounds, smells, removal can all be done. For Free advice please call Jason on 07802346323 or pestalance@me.com http://www.pestalance.co.uk

[WillExcell]

I have the same issue. There are Foxes on either side of us and they are jumping into my garden and pooing and weeing everywhere, the smell is hurrendous. Surely the faeces could cause serious harm to our youngsters. Let alone being attacked.

Personally i think we should start a campaign to get rid of these animals from our back gardens. I know most people would want to get invovled. The noise every night is enough to want to get rid of them.

I am intending to write to the council, not just to tell them about the foxes but to warn them that serious harm could be done to my young family. The same article should be sent to the news paper. Could the council be sued if they harmed anyone? Perhaps?

There is something i saw at the local garden centre in Wandsworth that gives off a signal that foxes hate, so it could scare them off. I am going to try it. i'm not sure if the dogs won't like it either but worth trying.

The only other thing to try is pouring your own urine around your garden. They really don't like the smell.

Good luck.

[jstockham]

if its a sonic noise it will affect the dog.