How to disperse urban Foxes?

lightspeed

Hi

not sure that this is in the right place but here goes:

our next door neighbour died a few months back and his home is now uninhabitted. We have always had urban foxes in our area but they now appear to be regularly camping out in next doors garden.

Today i went around to sneak a peak and saw what looks like a fox tunnel. Its about a foot deep and there is no way to tell how far it goes.

The council are not interested so i was wondering what is the best way to get rid. This is now concerning due to ground stability and safety as many surrounding houses have young children.

thanks

greyteam1959

First thing I would do is confirm if it was in use.
If you dont know anything about foxes & their smell the best way to confirm if it was in use would be to fill the hole in.
Leave it a few days then have a look. If it has all been dug out then I would say it was in use.
Look for their footprints in the fresh soil.
It would then be up to you how you got rid of them if they are there.

phill99

lightspeed wrote: »

This is now concerning due to ground stability

Ground stability?

They are foxes !!!!!!. They don't use tunnel boring machines or industrial excavation equipment.

I suggest you stop reading the Daily Mail

MrandMrsB

A "fox tunnel" is called an "earth"!

Hintza

Get the terrier man round.

JimmyTheWig

Human urine is a deterrant. Male is better than female.
(Apparently!)

martinthebandit

Its what I would use

Biggles

martinthebandit wrote: »

Its what I would use

Er, if you used it on someone else's property, which is where the alleged fox earth is, that probably would make you really a bandit!

moonrakerz

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Human urine is a deterrant. Male is better than female.
(Apparently!)

You're taking the................. - no, forget it !!

ukjoel

We have a similar problem.

As law stands at present you cant poison them, set your dog on them or use an old fashioned gin trap. Those are specific no no's although apparently drowning, beating with a shovel, and electrocuting would also be frowned on by the authorities and could result in prosecution.

You can shoot them (although concencus is an air rifle wont do the job so you will need a gun license), trap them with a snare (although still need to kill them) or catch them in a live trap and release elswhere. (This is slightly dodgy as foxes can travel great distances and it may be illegal if the fox gets stressed!!!)

Nowone has ever been prosecuted for doing this though.

Someone I know has had a decent result with a paintball gun and they seem to avoid his garden now. Apparently it was quite good fun too.

Live traps go for about £80 on ebay.

Lion dung works in the same way as human urine but is more expensive due to being harder to obtain.

27col

We've got 3 fox cubs that visit our garden regularly early each morning. It is great because they are adding to my collection of tennis balls, single gardening gloves and assorted single shoes.
It would take me miles of stalking through neighbouring gardens to collect them on my own.