Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi - I live in greater London - but Foxes are driving me mad. Earlier this year I bought cages and netting etc for my brassicas - last year I lost the lot to caterpillars, and thought I was outsmarting them this year by covering them from the start. All went very well for the first 2 months - then foxes - family with 3 cubs, decided to use my garden as a creche! they got in the net tunnel -by digging under the wire I'd put down to secure it and destoyed every plant in there in one night.! not one plant out of 30 odd left standing. since then - 3 weeks ago- I have been waging war every day, what ever I plant, and try to surround it to keep it 'safe' they dig up and play with at night.They even dug up all the onions. I've been round the entire garden and blocked the two holes in the fence - but the mother has now taught the young to go onto next doors summerhouse roof and jump 6-8 ft onto my greenhouse to get in over the 6ft fence. each night they are systematically working their way through each bed, and I go out each morning wondering what is left? can anyone please,please think of anything else I can do to stop them getting in??? There is only so much you can replant and replant and time is now running shorter, the only thing I have left are the peas and beans which still seem to be unscathed! any ideas welcome, getting desperate now! Thanks

How dispiriting. Maybe some sort of a deterrent in the form of a smell to reclaim your territory. Hair? urine?. Electric stock fencing? - but expensive. There may be some advice available through your local council.

Hi Polparrot

I suppose in London you can't use our country method of shooting the b*****s
Even if you did you'd likely have the locals up in arms at the destruction of such cute and cuddly wildlife
I really don't know how easy it would be to deter urban foxes, but have a look at this old thread, which has a link back to a urine discussion

Sorry if it seems like an obsession

Sadly the presence of foxes in your garden indicates their widespread presence in your neighbourhood and even if you could use Alan's "country method" another family would move in sooner or later once that family territory became vacant.

A remote possability is that you might be able to find a pest control service willing to trap and humanely dispose of them, anyone offering to trap and relocate will just shift the problem elsewhere.

Dogs are not a deterrent unless in the garden all the time, I have a very territorial German Shorthaired Pointer and the neighbourhood foxes climb the eight foot fence into my garden, saunter across the terrace and climb the six foot fence out the other side. She sees them off the allotment site if she sees them and they leg it damm fast, but they are there again the next week.

A satisfying but difficult method would be to get a paintball gun and shoot them with that, should be annoying enough to discourage them from your garden. Satisfying as in payback without actually harming them. However you would be very visible doing this and might end up with the Met's armed response unit asking questions of you. Also it would take a lot of time and is not certain to discourage them fully.

Making their "landing zone" uncomfortable or impossible could be difficult, but is worth trying in the short term, got any holly bushes you could use the prunings from as greenhouse shading? Put netting in the jump zone, but do tie some old CD's on it to prevent dangling foxes.

The only sure way is physical protection and it takes time and money.
You will have to resort to "hard structures" along the lines of a chicken run.
Use galvanised chicken wire as the bottom part of your cage(s), with at least a foot buried horizontally six inches below the surface of the soil outside the cage. Thus L.
This is probably the most reliable method, though for certainty of protection I would use two sections of wire, one mostly upright and one mostly underground to extend the anti-tunnelling zone out from the fence at least two to three feet.
The cage will neet to be just that and include a roof as the buggers can climb very well.
Hard work, not cheap, but should work and importantly, last a while.
Oh and use paving slabs around the entrance gate to the cage(s).

thanks so much for coming back to me so quickly guys,,,, there is hope then! although I'd love to do alans method, you're right I cant round here.Next door is one of the 'oh aren't they lovely' brigade!!! I think I'll have to try the holly suggestion though in the meantime and then do the cage thing for a more permanent structure next year.

Sorry to hear of your plight.....I have a fox wee problem, leaving my patio stinking. We tried man wee to combat this, but I think they just laughed and carried on peeing. I am going to douse again this weekend, as we have my BF's 40th next weekend, and I don't want the party area to smell of fox wee, ugh! I have jeyes fluid too, which will work in the short term, but only til they next pee on everything.

Hi Retropants,
I am having this wonderful vision of man versus the fox on your patio and am having a large chuckle!
JB.

LOL, you silly!!!!