Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message . com
from "Weatherlawyer" contains these words:

I have the damned things digging in my garden. Short of shooting them
what can I do?

I have thought of covering the flower beds with netting but don't know
what type to use. Road bed mattress would allow the plants to grow
through. And so would barbed wire.

Any suggestions?

It's not even my garden I am guerrilla-ing it.

So are they, and they were probably there first. You'll have to learn
to live with them.

Don't be so bloody stupid.

From experience elsewhere (a longterm fox-den in the garden with a new
litter of cubs every year) this time of year is the worst for digging.
This years cubs are an energetic teenage gang and haven't dispersed yet,
just about mature enough to leave home. The parents are cutting the
food supply. The youngsters are having to fend for themselves and now
is when they do a lot of digging/scraping for easy food like worms,
grubs and beetles. When they get more expert at foraging larger meals
(such as mice) foxes ease up on the digging (and also disperse).

I have no objection to the foxes per se although I'd prefer them to
bugger off and I'd have the birds to feed and enjoy. There has never
been a shortage of foxes in the city or the field. However they have
never really bothered with this patch until I started improving the
soil.

Now they are spoiling it for me.

The weather has been particularly fruitful for them at the moment.
Perhaps they are foraging for mushrooms. There is a bumper harvest
after the recent weather. And yes they could be eating worms, slugs and
whatever, even craneflies.

I just wish they'd go and do it elsewhere. There are plenty of half
eaten takeaways, discarded in the area.