Foxes are becoming increasingly common in urban areas where they can damage plants and cause other nuisances in gardens.
The fox problem
Once foxes have become established in an urban area it is difficult to keep them out of gardens. Standard netting or fencing is unlikely to provide an effective barrier, as foxes are able to scramble over or dig underneath. Once inside the garden, foxes can cause damage by trampling plants, digging holes or leaving droppings and food debris. A fox may dig up new plants, especially where bonemeal, dried blood or chicken pellet manure has been used. Foxes smell these materials and dig down in the belief that there is food below. Foxes also sometimes chew through plastic hosepipes and polythene tunnels. Dog foxes use their excrement and pungent urine as territorial markers, often leaving their droppings in prominent positions. If a garden forms the boundary between two foxes’ territories, it may be frequently marked in this way.
Dealing with foxes
None of the proprietary animal repellent substances currently available for garden use is likely to be effective in keeping out foxes. Proprietary repellent substances used against cats and wild animals would need frequent applications to maintain their effect. Scaring devices that emit ultra-sonic sound may be effective in the short term but it is likely that foxes will become accustomed to the sound and will lose their fear.
In the absence of effective means of excluding urban foxes, it is often a matter of tolerating their presence and dealing with the nuisances that they cause. This may mean changes to the types of plant grown, with plants that can survive or avoid trampling being chosen. Fertilisers other than bonemeal, dried blood or animal-derived fertilisers should be used. Holes dug by foxes should be filled in promptly before they deepen, otherwise a den may be established. Where foxes are breeding in a den in a garden, damage will increase considerably, particularly during early summer when up to five fox cubs are running around in the vicinity of the den.
Relocating urban foxes to rural areas is not recommended, as suitable habitats in the countryside are likely to be populated with foxes already, against which the town animals will struggle to compete. It is highly likely that other urban foxes will quickly move in to take over a garden territory that has been vacated by the removal of the resident animals.