Badger damage to new lawn

Slinky

Lived in our house 13 years, have spent a fortune having the garden landscaped in the last few months. Now for the first time ever, we've got something digging up the new turf. :mad: We think it's badgers. Next door have been getting it too, my Dad who lives about 100 meters away has had some signs of them too and something has been digging under fences which run along the footpath behind my house.

A search of t'internet shows Renardine was banned in 2005 and there appears to be nothing else to replace it as a deterrant.

Has anybody else had this sort of problem? I was thinking of trying a sonic cat scarer - anybody had success with them?

scottyD_2

Hi Slinky, How did you get on with your badger problem? Similar to you we have just started to get badgers lifting our lawn after living in the house for 5 years with no problem. I was thinking about getting a sonic scarer and just wanted to know if it worked for you.

tim_n

I saw something on countryfile where a historic garden was being destroyed overnight by badgers - they decided to put out peanuts on the lawn, if they've got a ready food source they won't bother digging apparently. A couple in Dorset tried this however and it apparently got worse.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7830043.stm

more info on them here: http://www.cornwallbadgergroup.org.uk/damage.htm

the reason I'd guess is you've got a local food shortage for badgers and a fresh lawn will be being treated well by being watered and will therefore have plenty of worms etc in it. They're hungry. It'll only happen this time of the year, so either put up with it and enjoy the badgers or assuming they've got a set in woodland nearby, go and drop of a few sacks of food in the hope they'll eat that and not your lawn.

frivolous_fay

My mum has this problem.
They have dug holes in a couple of areas of the garden. They have pooed in the ones in the lawn. Repeatedly! I'm not sure it's just about worms...

tim_n

The 2nd link I posted mentioned a low level electric fence. They don't like them and they aren't that expensive. You only need it up a few months of the year, they're quite intelligent and'll get the message.

MunnyBoiler

My mum has this problem so she kind of reached an agreement with the badgers.....

She put out some cheap dog food each evening, they ate it and left her garden alone. Problem solved and everyone was happy.

choille

Man wee is a good deterrent, but it has got to be males pee. Get him to do it where you think they are coming in.