In message , Mark
Nicholls writes
I'm fast reaching the point where the pleasure from watching local foxes
playing in mine and my garden in the early morning is being outweighed by
the damage they are doing to my newly emerging plants!

That is a shame. I wonder if you are putting food out on the ground for
birds, hedgehogs etc? If so this is likely to encourage the fox visits
to the garden. Something that does encourage foxes to dig in cultivated
areas is the use of blood, fish and bone/bone meal fertiliser.

I wondered if anyone here has any experience with and advice on ways to deal
with these roguish pests? There are plenty of gadgets on Ebay, but the
likeliest looking one I've found is elsewhere, called 'Foxwatch'. It's a bit
pricey compared to the others, but claims to be 'the most successful
ultrasonic fox deterrent ever invented', which sounds promising:-) I want
something that scares off foxes but doesn't affect birds in any way. It'd be
nice if it kept cats away too - as the other gadgets claim they can - but
that's not essential. Apart from scaring off foxes, my main concern is not
to disturb the birds...

Any advice would be appreciated...

I am not aware of an ultrasonic device that has been proven to work with
foxes - if anyone has used one which has demonstrably worked as a
standalone deterrent I would be interested in hearing about it.

IIRC the Fox Project recommended a couple of chemical deterrents - Scoot
and Get off my garden. Deterrents such as these are most effective if
you can locate where the fox(es) are marking their territory by peeing
on specific objects or patches of ground and applying the deterrent in
the same place. Random application is unlikely to work.

Our local dog fox is a prodigious territory marker and marks the same
items on a regular basis - mainly large plant containers. We have been
lucky with damage that has been clearly down to foxes although they
visit every night and occasionally during the day. The only problem has
been their use of newly planted small shrubs as territory markers but a
rag kept soaked in Renardine on a short stick placed immediately
adjacent to the shrub solved the problem each time (Renardine has now
been withdrawn from sale).

--
Robert