(Not so) fantastic Mr Fox

[Ridgley]

We to have a problem with foxes but I am not sure what the solution is to this.

[Penguin68]

To be wholly honest I prefer foxes in my garden to cats - cats can be equally noisesome regarding their lavatorial habits (and tom's when marking territory) and at least the foxes tend not to massacre the birds - they both are equally helpful (foxes possibly more so) when it comes to rodent control. And cat's can also be noisy.

Foxes, unless very tame, don't beg for food or try to ingratiate themselves into multiple households, and I prefer their territorial displays to those of aggressive cats.

And foxes, if they are trying to catch my fish, aren't doing so blatantly in front of me with a sneer!

Additionally I'm not allergic to foxes but cats give me asthma.

[karter]

I wonder if foxes eat penguins? :))

[Penguin68]

Curiously probably not - the cold weather foxes are Arctic foxes, whereas us penguins are strictly Antarctic.

[uplandsneighbour]

I vote fox rather than cat, anytime.

all the anti-fox remedies suggested so far sound like those remedies that are worse than the disease they're supposed to cure.

why is fox noise worse than neighbour-trying-to-shoo-fox noise?

[ClareC]

If they trashed the garden now and again it wouldn't be so bad but it is EVERY night! They dig a hole to next door under the fence, I fill it..... next day earth all over the decking and hole back again!! I used a roof tile to fill the gap once and then piled earth too - only "foxed" them for a few days though!

I can almost live with the digging and bones appearing, even the night time screaming..... its the fox sh*t by the gate and near the front door that keeps reappearing that is the worst part! Stinks and is positioned in such manner that its easy to step in :-(

Anywhere local selling the lion poo?

[Mazza6]

Another solution is human hair around your perimeter. When I visited the hairdressers once she was collecting the hair in a bag to give to her friend to put on her bushes who was suffering from foxes.

I don't really fancy the ideal of hair flowing in the wind on your bushes!

[uplandsneighbour]

let them have their hole to next door - what's so objectionable about that? they're entitled to their rights of way, wouldn't you say?

we have a well-worn path across our garden with holes under the fence at both ends

if you leave them alone, you might find that the problem goes away

my brother coexisted peacefully with foxes in SW LOndon until the day he filled in their earth at the bottom of the garden

the next morning he found a fox poo neatly positioned in the middle of his kitchen skylight

he's left them alone since and they've left him alone

try it!

[ClareC]

uplandsneighbour Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> let them have their hole to next door - what's so

> objectionable about that? they're entitled to

> their rights of way, wouldn't you say?

> we have a well-worn path across our garden with

> holes under the fence at both ends

>

> if you leave them alone, you might find that the

> problem goes away

>

> my brother coexisted peacefully with foxes in SW

> LOndon until the day he filled in their earth at

> the bottom of the garden

> the next morning he found a fox poo neatly

> positioned in the middle of his kitchen skylight

> he's left them alone since and they've left him

> alone

>

> try it!

Hole through to next door is objectionable because my dog and toddler could then also get through to next door, and wander onto the road ......

The holes never used to be there, I lived here a couple of years with no problems at all, it's only since the fox family have expanded they have become destructive.

Edited to add, re the the statistics of one town fox per 1,800 town people, I think we have far more than that in ED! We had 3 fox cubs sleeping all day (dry days only) on top of one of the bushes in the garden throughout the summer last year - the bush is really tall, around 2 metres high, it was quite an incredible sight. At night they and their parents (and occasionally in the daytime) ran across the top of the bush to get from garden to garden - no need for holes in fences, they are as agile as cats and can climb!

[pommie]

i dont have a problem with foxes living in the gardens. With regards to the noise they make, how else are they supposed to communicate? Maybe you should ask them to speak quieter

[karter]

Pommie, maybe we should put earplugs in our childrens/babies ears when the foxes start shouting at each other at 3am outside window?!

[pommie]

it doesnt bother me karter, i can sleep thru it.

[ClareC]

Wakes me and my partner most nights..... And any guests that stay always comment.

Fortunately only occasionally wakes our toddler!

[Magpie]

Urine works for Cats as well as foxes - and is perfectly hygenic - just a bit smelly if you are not hydrated - its very pleasant on a lovely spring day to break the seal in the sunshine!

[witsd]

Foxes make a lot less noise than the crows who start screeching at about 4am. If you really do need to do something, I'd go with the powerful water pistol option.

And I nearly wrote 'cows' instead of 'crows' there... Think I need some sleep.

[Damian H]

I was in Plough Homecare and I saw in their pestcontrolk section something called Scoot Fox Repelent. Apparently you mix it with water and pour it round the territory you wish to make ff limits to Mr and Mrs Fox. Might be worth a try?

[peckingham palace]

I keep hens in East Dulwich and so far those effing foxes have killed 10 of them. No men's hair, man urine or lion dung will keep them away. I have an electric fence now and even then one fox cub walked straight through it and got it's head stuck. The noise was indescribable! If I lived in the country I'd take great pleasure in shooting them.

[minder]

But it's only nature! How do the foxes know you've got an electric fence!

[Loz]

minder Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> But it's only nature! How do the foxes know you've got an electric fence!

They'll work it out about the exact millisecond that 10,000 volts pings through their body.

[Mosco]

The noise from the foxes is torture for me on North Cross Road. In this hot weather the windows have to be open and if it's not groups of Pavarotti wannabees singing outside the Thai Corner Cafe (surely you heard them) it's the foxes keeping me awake. Maybe I should move as I always get woken up through the night by some sort of loud noise.

[HeadNun]

To all those advocating peace and tolerance of the foxes, perhaps you don't appreciate what a pest they are. They are strategically crapping all over mine and my neighbour's gardens - they have left their mark all over her back door, in her dog's bowl, on her vegetables, and she has small children. They come into my garden and don't budge when I try to shoo them away and they left a nice gift of a decapitated squirrel on my lawn and a hind leg in my neighbour's vegetable patch the other day.

They're a dirty, spiteful nuisance and really shouldn't be encouraged, they are not benign at all! If it were just their mating noises I had to endure, I'd be happy with that.

If anyone has any tips for deterring them, please do share. I am going to try the male urine as soon as I can find a volunteer (and this is not unhygienic - urine is sterile and I'd rather have that on my garden then the shit of a mangey scavenger).

[Ingrime]

Firstly, hello all - this is my first post on the EDF and hopefully not my last...

I too have terrible 'fox problems' - only last night I was woken at 3am to what sounded like a number of foxes having some sort of gladiator battle in my back garden, it really is noisy and I know a number of my neighbours are suffering as well... I live off Crystal Palace Road and will be urinating around my house tonight so I will keep you all updated on what effect this has.

I suppose we could all chip in for some traps and hopefully deter these filth that way?

[LadyDeliah]

When I told a Canadian friend of mine that we have foxes wandering around the streets of London she was amazed that we had wild animals living in our capital city. In Canada, she says, the exterminators would have been called out and dealt with them.

Saying that though, they do haveva tendency to shoot anything that moves over there so maybe Canada is not a beacon in that regard.

[DulwichFox]

Sorry

I will try and make less noise on my way home.

DulwichFox :))

[Sue]

HeadNun Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> They're a dirty, spiteful nuisance and really

> shouldn't be encouraged, they are not benign at

> all!

xxxxxxx

How can they be "spiteful"? They are animals doing what it is in their nature to do!

I get cats crapping all over my garden - since unfortunately I still have patches of bare earth after some work was done on the garden boundaries - and cat owners are likely to get mangled birds and other small creatures brought into their houses, but surely nobody would suggest setting traps for cats?

DulwichFox, :))