Felt Eating Foxes.

They can bite through chicken wire :-(

Chain link fencing (so far) has deterred them from beheading our chickens.

Mary

The message from "The Medway Handyman" contains these words:

Electrify it.

Bl**dy Hell! Back to the drawing board.

You might like to get some Renardine. It's a repellent for all sorts of animals including foxes. Countrywide Farmers generally stock it.

Or tell the lady to pee on the roof?

It's fun! and to a fox probably tastes nice and is certainly nice a chewable...

Hum tricky. Powerful jaws do foxes have. Chicken wire (1/2" mesh) might work but it depends on how much they like the felt... What ever protection I put on I'd overlay with small battens (1 x 1/4 ish) running up the roof, eaves to apex every 12" or so. When they do get through they only get through on section not the whole roof. Not that that helps with the eventual repair requirement much.

Chain link? 2" sq holes, might be enough for them to get at the felt through the holes. Something smaller say 1"?

Used to !, now banned in the UK

Oh! It was about a year ago I bought 5 litres! I suppose that's progress?

If it works and is useful the EU are sure to ban it, and you can bet any 'replacement' product will be a very poor substitute. Examples: Lead solder, Solvent based varnishes, and now fox deterent.

When I couldn't get Renardine last autumn, to prevent the foxes totally digging up my lawn I ended up putting an electric fence round it, but of course had to display a statuary danger notice to comply with EU rules.

Urban foxes are now a significant problem. I reckon we need some form of pest control, preferably natural and avoiding dangerous guns and poisons. How about a specialised and trained pack of dogs? They would need controlling, and the man in charge would need to be highly visable, so maybe should wear a bright red coat. As access will be difficult to many of the places foxes go, probably vehicles wouldn't work and a horse is suggested as a practical environmentally friendly alternative.

Oh blast - we had that system - what happened to it ........

AWEM

Chicken wire is made from very thin gauge wire. For something stronger try Twilweld.

As the number of foxes in the countryside increase more and more will migrate to urban areas where living is easier for them. As most ban the hunt people are townies I guess that will drive home to them what a pest they are.

In message , Andrew Mawson writes

Do you happen to have Cob or Hazel nut trees in your garden? I am curious as I have the same problem. I believe they are looking for germinating nuts buried by Squirrels or Jays.

I replaced a section of lawn with wood chippings to reduce the problem. Back on topic:-)

regards

Why would they increase if the hunts are no longer feeding them? :-)

There have been plenty of foxes in urban areas for decades, at least. AUIU there's a higher density of foxes/area in urban areas than in the countryside.

We've had foxes in our garden (in Reading) on and off for the last 3-4 years, at least: they even dug a den in a fairly wild patch at the bottom of our garden a few years ago. They haven't caused us any problems: in particular they've shown no interest in the guinea pigs we used to have in a hutch outdoors, or the rabbits we now have in an outdoor run, although a friend who lives nearby and keeps chickens has lost some to foxes.

Wikepedia

You beat me to it...

problem.

No - I understand that they are digging for leatherjackets.

AWEM

It's not effective against fox :-(

Mary

The story is that it has to be male urine.

That doesn't work for long either, you have to keep doing it. It didn't work for us.

Mary

Did the fox read it?

It never came into our inner city garden.

It was invited onto a daughter's farm but was unsuccessful.

Mary

And they can chew through wood. They had a go at our wooden chicken ark.

I honestly think that's the best idea.

Mary