How to keep foxes out garden

sorry Lulubelle500, i don't understand your post, will you clarify please

It's definitely a fox! I saw it tonight in my front garden as my dog was barking like mad and I took him outside on the lead thank goodness or he would have been off after it I'm sure. Now how to put male urine in front garden?! Maybe I should try vinegar first

There is a hedgehog that comes into our garden most nights under a fence. We can see where it comes as it disturbs the little pebbles and lifts the mat to keep the weeds at bay under the pebbles. He/she can keep coming as long as it wants as we know they are becoming rare. ?

Just occasionally we have a fox visit, I don’t particularly object until our terrier rolls in fox poo, then comes in and rolls on the carpet.
Not nice

We get foxes too! I have some Scoot and will use that around the area where the fox gets in. It is supposed to deter them but have yet to try it. I have also been told that human male urine in the area stops them - not tried that either!

Thanks folks...a few good suggestions that I will follow up. Havnt seen a fox in my garden, no poo droppings although I have seen a fox a few times in the stŕeet here. It may well be a cat as some of you have said and you have also said if a dog was around the garden, a fox wouldn't be in. Our dog has just started doing this for a few weeks so I'll just have to wait and see how things develop

Next door’s dog is terrified of the urban foxes which roam our area unchecked and seem not to be afraid of anything.

We have an alley up the side of our house which the foxes used to access the road and the smell of them was overpowering and coming into the house through vents. Eventually I went into battle and scrubbed the alley, added chicken wire to the wrought metal gate and half way down the alley created a further barrier of wire fencing with 50mm holes which they find impossible to climb. Then I made another barrier at the garden end of the alley. It sounds extreme but after 10 years of the stink coming through into our toilet, shower and kitchen, all is now sweet smelling,
I grow my own vegetables so I made raised beds with bars across to keep the foxes from messing among the veg. My next anti-fox project is to fix 18” high sections of the wire fencing to the top of each fence panel. Foxes can scale a 6 ft fence but not with the wire at the top.
I have tried all the tricks to keep them away - had no idea that Jeyes was a bad idea - but chilli powder, coffee, male pee, anti cat powder etc, etc, are only effective until the next rain shower. It seems only barriers work.

I don't think the foxes will come into a garden where a dog could appear at any moment, if they can avoid doing so.

Granarchist

Definitely foxes. rats have very little scent - terriers mostly hunt rats on sight not scent. Badgers are the ones killing hedgehogs - they eviscerate them and just leave the skins - it is heartbreaking. Since badgers got protection we have hardly seen a hedgehog whereas we used to see them a lot. The problem is that both badgers and foxes are at the top of the food chain with nothing but man and illness to control their numbers. The number of dead animals on roads is a good indication of numbers in the wild - so if you are no longer seeing dead hedgehogs it is because there are far fewer around. Loads of dead badgers been run over round our area. They are thriving but at the expense of hedgehogs.

???*rats have very little scent*

We live with fields behind, and the occasional rat visits, which sends our neighbour’s dogs wild. We have stopped feeding the birds because of this. There are plenty of foxes around but they never come into the garden.

Granarchist

Definitely foxes. rats have very little scent - terriers mostly hunt rats on sight not scent. Badgers are the ones killing hedgehogs - they eviscerate them and just leave the skins - it is heartbreaking. Since badgers got protection we have hardly seen a hedgehog whereas we used to see them a lot. The problem is that both badgers and foxes are at the top of the food chain with nothing but man and illness to control their numbers. The number of dead animals on roads is a good indication of numbers in the wild - so if you are no longer seeing dead hedgehogs it is because there are far fewer around. Loads of dead badgers been run over round our area. They are thriving but at the expense of hedgehogs.

ptes.org/campaigns/hedgehogs/hedgehogsandbadgers/
Badgers will only kill hedgehogs if food isn’t readily available. Generally they eat other things.

In my old house my dogs used to bark like mad in the evenings at the patio doors. I discovered we had hedgehogs visiting the garden.

Definitely foxes. rats have very little scent - terriers mostly hunt rats on sight not scent. Badgers are the ones killing hedgehogs - they eviscerate them and just leave the skins - it is heartbreaking. Since badgers got protection we have hardly seen a hedgehog whereas we used to see them a lot. The problem is that both badgers and foxes are at the top of the food chain with nothing but man and illness to control their numbers. The number of dead animals on roads is a good indication of numbers in the wild - so if you are no longer seeing dead hedgehogs it is because there are far fewer around. Loads of dead badgers been run over round our area. They are thriving but at the expense of hedgehogs.

Terriers are hard wired to kill vermin, it could be rats especially if he is getting really excited. I bet it isn’t foxes.

I haven’t seen a hedgehog in at least 15 years, and we used to get several in our garden, even babies. As I understand it the foxes kill the babies when their spines are still soft. I just walked up the garden yesterday and found that a fox had removed the floating aerator from my pond and chewed through the air pipe. I have six sonic repellers, but although they avoid going near them the foxes find other routes, as the repellers’ range isn’t great enough to cover my garden. I clean the greenhouse with Jeyes fluid and it definitely keeps them away for awhile. If your garden is fairly small I would recommend sonic repellers.
I even have to block up the area beneath my side gate nowadays, as they use it to get to people’s bin bags on dustbin day!
Cute, yes, but filthy and destructive. You can’t keep some out, but it’s a good idea to deter them as best you can. Lions’s wee pellets didn’t work for me at all, but there’s a powder sold in garden centres (can’t remember the name) which you mix up with water then spray around your garden. It works for a while. Best of luck

Rumpunch - I've done another search on Jeyes fluid and you're correct that it is hazardous and we won't use it anymore. It has the same carcinogens as creosote apparently - which is probably why it smells of creosote! My main concern though is that it gets into the water system and is dangerous for anything aquatic. Which is a bit weird because I did read that it is easily biodegradable, and non poisonous so a bit of research required I think.

Hopefully the little we put down round the fence will be enough to continue to keep the rat out.

Please don't block up every little hole in your fences; hedgehogs need to be able to access a run of gardens to eat enough slugs etc. They're great for the garden and do no harm.

I think you are right, your dog is smelling a fox.

Has anyone nearby suddenly started keeping hens, ducks or geese? If so the fox may be taking the shortest route down to the poultry.

I am afraid only a chain link fence that goes well down into the ground will keep foxes out really well.

Horribly expensive, so check your existing fence for holes the fox has made to get through. If you have hedges, you might want to put hen-wire up inside them, but I am not sure that will keep the fox out.

My son set up a motion sprinkler to stop cats poo in his garden. It was very effective and would send a short jet of water at anything that moved
The kids and DIL unfortunately got soaked a few times when they forgot to turn it off!!!

Vinegar sounds a good one. Does it work on rats too?

There is a product you can buy called “Get off my garden” - yes, really!!! It’s intended as a cat deterrent and is very highly citrus scented jelly crystals, which you scatter at the entry point, or around the garden perimeter and it definitely does deter foxes as well as cats. We had a lot of urban foxes where I lived previously and whilst I did not mind them in my garden, I did object when they started pooing in my porch and even up my front door! This product worked. You can buy it in some supermarkets, diy stores and garden centres here in the uk.

Jeyes fluid is a danger to other living things evidently and we were advised not to use it.
Male wee does work as does boiled garlic water (? !!) but only until it rains !

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lulubelle, I don't understand your message. Could you clarify please?

They don't like the smell of male urine as tanith says but I am going to try the jeyes fluid things along the fences too, thanks for suggesting that Amberone