"robert" wrote in message
...
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 only put out bird seed, and have recently used some bonemeal while
planting roses, but their visits seem to be part of a long-established
routine well preceding my cultivation of the garden, which I only acquired
last year as a virgin plot. But now you mention it they seem to have a
liking for B&Q compost - they were always having a go at the bags in the
garden, and often their digging has been around new plants which have
compost around them...But I have to say they mainly seem to play rather than
forage - spending a long time chasing each other around like puppies: I
think the two around now may be the cubs from the family that visited
throughout last summer...would that be likely, I wonder?..


I am not aware none 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.

Well, this Foxwatch gadget is '100% guaranteed to work or your money back',
so I might give it a go and report back...


IIRC the Fox Project recommended a couple of chemical deterrents - Scoot
and Get off my garden.

Yes, they still say that ultrasonic deterrents are 'broadly ineffective',
and recommend either the above products you mention or a water propelled
gadget called 'scarecrow'. I think that has to be connected to a hose-pipe,
so I'm not too into the thought of that trailing up the garden all the
time...I might email Fox Project about Foxwatch, to see if it was one of the
ones they tested...

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.

I don't feel confident in locating their pee!...but I'll check out the
chemical deterrents; I found something that was a bright blue gel, but was
distinctly unimpressed by the thought of having the stuff spread all over
the garden, or even locally applied - too likely to get trodden in a walked
all over the house!..


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).

I was prepared to let them keep playing until they destroyed two newly
growing peonies, after which their fate was sealed...:-)

Thanks for your info anyway!

Mark