The East Dulwich Hunt..... (foxes)

[hintza]

I am at my wits end! Does anyone else have problems with foxes - or rather, does anyone else have problems with the wretched noise they make from sunset to sunrise... There is a colony of the pestinential flea-ridden curs around where I live and they spend most nights fighting each other. I can only imagine that the sound they make is comparable with that you'd experience in an Essex nightclub watching two chavettes battering each other to death...

Having researched potential disposal methods I've reached the depressive conclusion that, short of a nuclear holocaust, there is nothing doing. You can't poison or trap the disease laden vermin, ultra-sound devices don't work and the only legal disposal method is shooting the wretched creatures... which in a built up area is, apparently, a bit of no no...

Suggestions most welcome.....

[TJ]

Powerful air rifle and don't tell anyone what you are up to.

shhhh.

[PeckhamRose]

Edited out for reasons of stuff.

[dbboy]

Have you tried contacting Ricky and Jimmy "the pest controllers" as was on BBC TV very recently. If you google for them, am sure they can come and deal with your problem. Shooting the little blitters may result in a visit from the fireaems squad (SO11 I thinks)!!!!!and you really wouldb't want that.

p.s excellent thread title

[Meld]

Are you sure it's definitely foxes and not cats mating?

[fractionater]

apparently Lion poo is supposed to be pretty good (google it).

[Sue]

It's the time of year, innit.

Fox yoot asserting themselves and seeing off rivals.

I think.

Edited to say: Also at this time of year they dig holes, parents teaching cubs how to dig, so I've read, could be a load of b******s of course.

[womanofdulwich]

They are too big for an air rifle to kill- but you could try using a bee bee gun as a deterrent? There is also a thing that makes a noise that apparently only foxes can hear and hurts their ears ( not sure how effective it its) you would have to google it.

[computedshorty]

?

[Jah Lush]

Isn't it the mating season? They can be a bit noisy when their getting their leg over.

[computedshorty]

?

[Burbage]

Most foxes get run over sooner or later but, failing that, it is still legal to hunt them, provided you don't use dogs.

Unfortunately, forming a hunt is a tricky prospect. Horses are scarce, and those I've seen in the area wouldn't suit at all. They may be able to clear a stick on a bucket, but a succession of garden fences would be beyond them. As for pogo-sticks and microlights, both come at the price of collateral damage.

In any case, external support is unlikely. The formation of an East Dulwich Hunt was raised with our MP a few years ago, but she declined to lend support or even acknowledge the problem - presumably our foxes, though noisy, cannot be heard in Tufnell Park.

Hunting is not the only option, however, as foxes are predated by bears and wolves. We have, close by, a useful tract of ancient forest, and a dynamic Wildlife Trust that's keen and eager to increase biodiversity. Perhaps someone should have a word.

[womanofdulwich]

all you need is a decent firearm then? can't we harness local gangs to notch up how many foxes they can kill and display them?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Snares are legal, though I think they're v. unsporting:

DEFRA Guides to Snaring

How you then choose to kill the fox is another matter!

[Penguin68]

Sue wrote:-

at this time of year they dig holes, parents teaching cubs how to dig, so I've read, could be a load of b******s of course.

Foxes actually eat worms, often the small (and very annoying) holes they dig in lawns are to find them - larger holes are also dug to store food in (i.e. bits of chicken they scavenge from bins) but these will be back filled.

[????]

Other than cars they have no predators round here, easy access to food and shelter...this will start to become quite a big 'problem' soon

[Sue]

Penguin68 Wrote:

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

> Sue wrote:-

>

> at this time of year they dig holes, parents

> teaching cubs how to dig, so I've read, could be a

> load of b******s of course.

>

> Foxes actually eat worms, often the small (and

> very annoying) holes they dig in lawns are to find

> them - larger holes are also dug to store food in

> (i.e. bits of chicken they scavenge from bins) but

> these will be back filled.

xxxxxxxx

Really? They dug a very large hole in my very small back garden - I don't have a lawn - didn't store any food in it and didn't back fill it?

:-S

[Penguin68]

Really? They dug a very large hole in my very small back garden - I don't have a lawn - didn't store any food in it and didn't back fill it?

That's odd - normally fox holes (as living burrows) are dug into banks/ under sheds etc. Maybe they were digging/ trying to dig something up (previously buried perhaps?). If they were 'play digging' burrows, you would have thought they'd be trying somewhere sensible - but fox cubs are very playful - hence the plethora of stolen shoes around here.

[Ted Max]

this will start to become quite a big 'problem' soon

I, for one, welcome our new fox overlords.

[sophiesofa]

hence the plethora of stolen shoes around here.

That reminds me there's a large beige suede loafer in my garden at the moment. If anyones missing one from near Blackwater street/Lordship Lane PM me.

[????]

sophiesofa Wrote:

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

> hence the plethora of stolen shoes around here.

> That reminds me there's a large beige suede loafer

> in my garden at the moment. If anyones missing

> one from near Blackwater street/Lordship Lane PM

> me.

No-one's going to own up to that surely?

[sophiesofa]

Maybe under the privacy of a PM they might!

[Sue]

Penguin68 Wrote:

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

> Really? They dug a very large hole in my very

> small back garden - I don't have a lawn - didn't

> store any food in it and didn't back fill it?

>

> That's odd - normally fox holes (as living

> burrows) are dug into banks/ under sheds etc.

>

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It is a sort of bank - on a slope, anyway.

They didn't live in it, as far as I know, just exposed all the roots of a shrub.

I haven't seen any foxes in the garden lately, but there was a huge one a year or so ago, apparently terrorising a cat, or possibly vice versa. When I went into the garden it leaped over the wall.

[Ms T]

>Ted Max Wrote:

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

> this will start to become quite a big 'problem'

> soon

>

> I, for one, welcome our new fox overlords.

>:D<

[iaineasy]

We had a fox in our front garden yesterday evening,he was resting under the front hedgeminding his own business and far from being a flea bitten mange ridden thing, he seemed to be very healthy and had a very beautiful coat that looked very well groomed, whilst I accept they can be a bit noisy at this time of year, it is for just a short period of time over the course of the year, and the rest of the time they seem to go un-noticed. I for one like the foxes, they have every right to rub along with us in the best way they can and I think we would be much worse off without them.

perhaps a cheap set of foam earplugs would help you and a little tolerance for natures much put upon FANTASTIC MR FOX!