On 21 Apr 2007 05:12:49 -0700, Dave Hill
wrote:

Another problems wit Badgers can be their love of fresh Veg.
Last year they cleared a 20 ft row of carrots in 2 nights after I had
pulled the first bunch for us, also they have completly cleared my
patch of Jerusalem Artichokes (Don't let anyone tell you that once you
have them they are there for life). Also cleared sweetcorn in one
night just before it was ready to pick.

Yes Dave, I agree there. 3 or 4 years ago we had badgers invading the
allotment site, at night. They went for carrots and corn; don't think
there are any J. artichokes there.
I don't know what happened to them. They have not been back!

Pam in Bristol

On 20 Apr, 18:05, Chris Hogg wrote:
My mother has a very neat and tidy garden of which she is justifiably
proud (she is 87 and suffers quite badly from arthritis). But from
time to time, especially in dry weather it seems, her lawn gets dug up
by what she says are badgers. It's either badgers or foxes. Whichever,
during the night her lawn gets covered in small holes, like golfer's
divots, where some animal has presumably been digging for worms. The
neighbours suffer the same problem.

Is there a anything she can scatter to deter them? The garden is well
fenced and there's no obvious sign of where they come in, although
they may come over the front wall, about 4ft high. Recently she's
tried painting bits of wood and odd lumps of concrete with (proper)
creosote and leaving them around the garden in the hope that the smell
would deter whatever it is, but to no avail.

Any suggestions? (She doesn't have access to lion dung!)

--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

This doesn't sound like badger damage to me - you don't get a 'golfers
divot' it's more like 5-8inches wide and deep, usually when they're
after leather jackets, chafer grubs or worms. Jackdaws or Rooks or
possibly a fox seem more likely. Squirrels burying/unburying is also a
possibility.
Sorry I can't offer a solution - if it is badgers we resorted to a low
electric fence and that isn't 100%, keeping it clear of vegetation and
fallen twigs around our 3 main lawns is a job in itself and it looks
horrible. When we didn't have the fence the lawns were like a badly
ploughed field by the spring.
If it's the other suspects, then just putting the divots back is a
pain but probably the best answer.
On our scale the nematode option just wasn't practical (It would be in
a smaller garden) and I wasn't willing to use the available chemical
controls for chafers or leather jackets and I wouldn't dream of
killing the worms.

On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:58:28 +0100, Sacha wrote
(in article ) :

On 21/4/07 08:18, in article
, "Peter James"
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:05:43 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote
(in article ):

My mother has a very neat and tidy garden of which she is justifiably
proud (she is 87 and suffers quite badly from arthritis). But from
time to time, especially in dry weather it seems, her lawn gets dug up
by what she says are badgers. It's either badgers or foxes. Whichever,
during the night her lawn gets covered in small holes, like golfer's
divots, where some animal has presumably been digging for worms. The
neighbours suffer the same problem.

Is there a anything she can scatter to deter them? The garden is well
fenced and there's no obvious sign of where they come in, although
they may come over the front wall, about 4ft high. Recently she's
tried painting bits of wood and odd lumps of concrete with (proper)
creosote and leaving them around the garden in the hope that the smell
would deter whatever it is, but to no avail.

Any suggestions? (She doesn't have access to lion dung!)




If this is badger activity they will be after worms. Can you kill the worms
in the lawn thus making it less attractive for them. Their are numerous
products on the market for doing this on golf putting greens, croquet lawns
etc.
One of the most effective chemical repellers against badgers was a product
called "Renardine" that was also effective against Foxes. But as I
understand, it has been withdrawn from sale.

Kill the worms and kill the lawn. Far better to live with what seems to be
slight damage just for a short time while the animal feeds itself.



Howso? On my golf course the green-keepers kill the worms on the putting
green as a regular activity. It hasn't killed the greens yet, and I'm almost
prepared to bet that our greens are better than any household lawn.

"Peter James" wrote in message
s.com...
On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:58:28 +0100, Sacha wrote
(in article ) :

On 21/4/07 08:18, in article
, "Peter James"
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:05:43 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote
(in article ):

My mother has a very neat and tidy garden of which she is justifiably
proud (she is 87 and suffers quite badly from arthritis). But from
time to time, especially in dry weather it seems, her lawn gets dug up
by what she says are badgers. It's either badgers or foxes. Whichever,
during the night her lawn gets covered in small holes, like golfer's
divots, where some animal has presumably been digging for worms. The
neighbours suffer the same problem.

Is there a anything she can scatter to deter them? The garden is well
fenced and there's no obvious sign of where they come in, although
they may come over the front wall, about 4ft high. Recently she's
tried painting bits of wood and odd lumps of concrete with (proper)
creosote and leaving them around the garden in the hope that the smell
would deter whatever it is, but to no avail.

Any suggestions? (She doesn't have access to lion dung!)




If this is badger activity they will be after worms. Can you kill the
worms
in the lawn thus making it less attractive for them. Their are numerous
products on the market for doing this on golf putting greens, croquet
lawns
etc.
One of the most effective chemical repellers against badgers was a
product
called "Renardine" that was also effective against Foxes. But as I
understand, it has been withdrawn from sale.

Kill the worms and kill the lawn. Far better to live with what seems to
be
slight damage just for a short time while the animal feeds itself.



Howso? On my golf course the green-keepers kill the worms on the putting
green as a regular activity. It hasn't killed the greens yet, and I'm
almost
prepared to bet that our greens are better than any household lawn.

True but the care and attention that has to be lavished on the greens, as a
result of 0% worm activity, is phenomenal and accounts for a vast percentage
of the time and money spent on the course.

On 22/4/07 07:54, in article
, "Peter James"
wrote:

On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:58:28 +0100, Sacha wrote
(in article ) :
snip Kill the worms and kill the lawn. Far better to live with what
seems to be
slight damage just for a short time while the animal feeds itself.



Howso? On my golf course the green-keepers kill the worms on the putting
green as a regular activity. It hasn't killed the greens yet, and I'm almost
prepared to bet that our greens are better than any household lawn.

Yes but your green keeper also spends a lot of time aerating the lawn,
scarifying it, feeding it etc. and doing the job the worms would do on a
'normal' lawn. This almost certainly involves some expensive machinery.
And you golfers probably wear spiked shoes to play golf, thus helping the
green keeper in his work.
If you kill the worms in a normal, domestic lawn and don't do all the above
yourself, the soil will become impacted and water logged and eventually
that nice, healthy green lawn will be a boggy, soggy, dead and yellow mess.
Worms really are of immense help to a healthy lawn. In killing the worms in
the OP's mother's lawn, she would be letting herself in for all the work of
a green keeper or a sad looking lawn. Worms are good friends to gardeners.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

On 22 Apr, 08:17, "Rupert \(W.Yorkshire\)"
wrote:
"Peter James" wrote in message

Kill the worms and kill the lawn. Far better to live with what seems to
be
slight damage just for a short time while the animal feeds itself.

Howso? On my golf course the green-keepers kill the worms on the putting
green as a regular activity. It hasn't killed the greens yet, and I'm
almost
prepared to bet that our greens are better than any household lawn.

True but the care and attention that has to be lavished on the greens, as a
result of 0% worm activity, is phenomenal and accounts for a vast percentage
of the time and money spent on the course.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Just to preach a bit on what Sacha and Rupert are saying.
Many gardeners seem to think the only 'proper' lawn is like a bowling
green or other high quality playing surface and that therefore they
have to ape everything the greenkeepers and groundsmen do.
Domestic lawns have to do a different job and need different care. If
you ape the greenkeepers and groundsmen you give yourself a whole lot
of work and problems you don't need to have and your lawn won't be a
particularly good domestic lawn.

Many thanks for all the comments and advice. The lawn is a mix of
grass and 'mind-your-own-business', probably about 50:50. The holes
are typically 1" to 3" diameter, and up to 2" deep, which suggest fox
from what you've said, although both fox and badger have been seen in
neighbouring gardens in recent years. There's no obvious sign of entry
into the garden, but recently there have been stones knocked out of
the top of the front wall (a Cornish 'hedge', like a double-sided dry
stone wall with an earth core), suggesting something is coming over
it. Damage is occurring a couple of times a week ATM.

Whichever it is, neither deterrence nor prevention seem viable
options. We're currently thinking about eliminating the attraction,
i.e. killing the leatherjackets and chafer grubs (although we don't
know for certain she has them). This afternoon I saw packets of the
Pravado granules advertised for doing just that, as someone has
already mentioned. She'll be seeing her bank manager shortly.....


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

On 20 Apr, 13:05, Chris Hogg wrote:
My mother has a very neat and tidy garden of which she is justifiably
proud (she is 87 and suffers quite badly from arthritis). But from
time to time, especially in dry weather it seems, her lawn gets dug up
by what she says are badgers.

My ma had this problem, and solved it by feeding the blighters. She
put out meat scraps, bird peanuts, even bread and cheese, at a time
when she had seen them in the garden - they are creatures of habit.

She became fascinated by feeding and watching them, learning to spot
individuals and family relationships.