The Top 10 Fox Deterrents UK for keeping foxes away
The ultimate fox deterrents for getting you the best results in keeping foxes away.
Archive for year: 2019
3 Essential Steps To Take If You Want To Keep Foxes Away
Three things you can do immediately that will make it much easier to deter foxes from your garden for the long term.
If you’ve got fox problems in your garden and are thinking about taking steps to keep them out, you need to be aware you are up against a very formidable creature.
Foxes are highly perceptive and intelligent animals and should not be underestimated when you’re attempting to discourage them from your garden.
That being said, there are some important things to bear in mind that will give you a competitive advantage and put a stop to the problems they’ve been causing you.
1. Find the entry point to your garden
Foxes are creatures of habit and will usually come into your garden at the same point each time. By working out where this place is, you will find it much easier to stop the fox from coming in.
The reason is because the entry point is where the fox makes a decision on whether it’s safe or not to enter your garden.
Currently, the fox is probably approaching your garden with absolutely nothing to make it think twice about entering. No strange sounds, no strange smells, no reason not to go in.
Your next course of action needs to be targeting the entrance with a fox deterrent.
Creating doubt and suspicion at the entry point ensures the fox’s ‘sensory alarms’ are triggered immediately, before it has even set foot in your garden.
You’ll be nipping the issue in the bud, putting the fox off before it gets the chance to foul, dig or cause any other problems that you’ve been experiencing.
2. Use different types of fox deterrent
To make it very clear to the fox that it’s not welcome, it’s best to use at least two different types of fox deterrent.
A great combination, for example, would be to use an ultrasonic deterrent and a scent-based repellent. This ensures that you’re targeting the fox’s sense of hearing and sense of smell, both of which they rely upon to alert them to danger.
If two separate instincts are warning a fox there’s a potentially risky situation ahead, you’ll have a much greater chance of getting it to avoid your garden altogether.
THE FOXWATCH ULTRASONIC FOX DETERRENT – £69.95
Protect your garden 24/7 & say goodbye to the pooing, digging and damage, without using sprays or chemicals.
3. You must be patient
Patience seems to be an unfashionable virtue in this day and age, but if you want to keep foxes out of your garden, you’re going to need a lot of it.
Just because you locate the entry point and use two different types of deterrent, it doesn’t mean the fox will suddenly give up its territory and disappear overnight.
On the contrary, if you introduce a strange sound or smell into your garden, an intelligent fox will be back again to see what the hell is going on. It will want to know what this inconvenience is, if it can be overpowered (by more pooing and urinating) and if it’s permanent or temporary.
This is why it’s important you don’t just use a deterrent once – that won’t be enough. You need to keep using it to ensure the fox gets the message that things have changed and your garden is now permanently off limits.
It’s only through the repeated use of a fox deterrent that you’ll get the fox to change its attitude and behaviour towards your garden so that it stays away.
Indeed, the best way to judge the effectiveness of a fox deterrent is not whether the fox has completely disappeared or not, but rather if you’re seeing less of the fox than you were previously.
The Cleanrth TSAR550 Ultrasonic Fox Repeller – USA
The Cleanrth TSAR550 is an ultrasonic fox deterrent that protects your garden from foxes 24/7.
Using high-pitched sounds that are beyond the range of human hearing, the fox learns to associate your garden with these irritating and uncomfortable noises.
After installation you will see less and less of the fox, until it stops entering your garden completely.
No need to spray anything. Easy to install. Completely humane. The Cleanrth TSAR550 is the USA’s most popular automated fox deterrent, offering long term fox protection for your garden.
Foxes are very persistent animals
If you’re in the USA and you’ve been experiencing problems with foxes coming into your garden, then it’s probably safe to say that you’ve had enough of the pooing, digging and destruction, and you’re looking for something to stop it.
Foxes are particularly persistent creatures that place great importance on securing their territories. The main way they do this is by ‘scent-marking’ – pooing and spraying urine in prominent places to signal to neighbouring foxes that the territory is occupied.
Foxes are notoriously reluctant to give up their territories without a fight. So when it comes to deterring them with traditional scented repellents, people usually stop putting in the effort long before the fox has been deterred.
People give up before scented deterrents take effect
The main reason for people’s failure to deter foxes is because foxes need to face a sustained and persistent period of deterrence in order to get them to change their habits and stay away from your garden.
Too often, people buy a scented repellent, spray it around their garden a once or twice and think that should be enough. However, once or twice is not enough. Smells quickly fade, especially after rain, and the fox will be back again having considered the scented deterrent a brief inconvenience rather than a reason to stay away for good.
Normal service will quickly resume.
The successful way to use a scented deterrent is too apply it in your garden every couple of days for at least 2 weeks. This keeps the smell strong and is long enough to cause behavioural change in the fox, teaching it to associate your garden with the horrible smell (usually citronella).
Traditional fox repellents are high maintenance
The main problem with this method is that you’ve got to remember to get out in your garden regularly to apply this stuff.
What if it’s raining? What if you’re busy at work or with family? What about during vacations?
There are a large number of reasons why you might not be able to get into your garden as often as you need in order to successfully keep the fox away.
Even if you do manage to apply a scented deterrent and temporarily get rid of the fox, what happens in 2 or 3 months when the fox tries its luck again and discovers that the horrible smell has gone? You have to go through the whole process all over again.
Surely there must be an easier way?
The Cleanrth TSAR550 – making fox deterrent easy
The Cleanrth Ultrasonic Deterrent is a much easier alternative to traditional scented fox repellents because you don’t need to do anything else after you’ve set it up.
Installation is simple. All you need to do is screw in the plastic stake into the bottom of the unit, connect the included mains adapter (or 2 x 9 volt batteries – not included) and switch it on.
When the fox enters your garden and crosses the Cleanrth’s motion sensor, the unit lets out a few sharp bursts of high-pitched noise. This noise is like a fox burglar alarm, or the fox equivalent of scratching your fingernails down a chalkboard.
Each time the fox tries to enter your garden (and it will keep trying) it triggers the alarm. This causes the fox to change its behaviour – associating your garden with the horrible noise and learning to go somewhere else.
The Cleanrth TSAR550 will continue to do this every single time, regardless of the time of day or whether you’re in or out. You don’t need to remember to be out in your garden or do anything inconvenient that you haven’t got time for. The Cleanrth sits in your yard doing the hard work for you.
Find the entry point to your garden
To get the best results from the Cleanrth Fox Repeller, try and find the place where the fox enters your garden and set up the unit facing that area.
The entry point is important because it means the fox will trigger the ultrasonic noises the moment it tries to enter your garden. This will be more effective and lead to quicker results than if the fox was allowed further into your garden before encountering the deterrent.
Use the power adapter
The Cleanrth unit comes with a power adapter (with 38ft cable) that you can plug into your electrical supply and it’s recommended by the manufacturer that you use it.
You can use 2 x 9 Volt batteries instead, but you then face the problem of having batteries go flat. If the batteries go flat and you don’t notice, the ultrasonic unit is effectively useless and the foxes won’t be facing a deterrent.
If you don’t have a plug socket nearby, it’s a good idea to get an extension cable that is suitable for use outside. You will get much better results using the power adapter.
Priced around $70, with mounting stake and including a 9V DC 500mA power adapter, the Cleanrth TSAR550 uses a triple scan infrared sensor that can detect foxes up to 66ft away in a 120 degree arc, which is suitable for all types of garden.
Low maintenance and very effective, the Cleanrth TSAR550 Ultrasonic Repeller has quickly become one of America’s most efective ways of keeping foxes away.
How to wash fox poo off your dog
If you’re reading this article, then you’ve obviously got a dog that’s known in the trade as a ‘roller’. This article explains what to use to clean your dog to get rid of the smell of fox poo, why dogs do this and how to stop them doing it again in future.
When you have foxes in your local area then a normally simple task, such as letting your dog into the garden or off the leash in the local park, can quickly turn into a smelly nightmare.
You’ve got to try and intercept them before they bring the poo into the house (or in the car) and then find a way of getting them into the bath without getting it on yourself.
All in all, it’s a horrible and time consuming job and after all that effort, there’s no guarantee that your regular dog shampoo will actually get rid of the stink.
So what can you use to wash your dog instead?
A dog shampoo designed for fox poo
As you know, fox poo is particularly pungent and the smell can linger even after you’ve washed your dog.
This is because a lot of dog shampoos don’t contain any form of deodoriser, so though the germs may be gone, the disgusting smell still remains – not nice for you and your family, even if your dog doesn’t mind!
What you need is a dog shampoo that is tough enough to get rid of the germs and remove the smell, while also remaining kind to your dog’s skin.
Animology Fox Poo Deodorising Dog Shampoo 250ml RRP £6
Animology is a British brand that specialises in pet care products and they have developed a fox poo-specific shampoo to use on dogs.
Not only does the shampoo contain the all-important deodoriser for getting rid of the foul smell of fox poo, the formula also is low on lather so that it’s easy to rinse, therefore avoiding the long drawn out process of trying to get all the suds out under the shower. This should be particularly reassuring for those with long-haired dogs.
The in-built conditioner, containing Pro Vitamin B5, ensures that the coat will be left soft, shiny and smelling much nicer, enabling you to let your dog near you again without wincing.
The Animology Fox Poo Shampoo is suitable for all breeds of dog and is gentle enough to be used on puppies.
How to wash your dog – video demonstration
Why do dogs roll in fox poo?
There’s no definitive answer on why dogs love rolling in fox poo, cow pats, dead animals and other things we find disgusting. However it is worth noting that just because you find a certain smell unpleasant, it doesn’t mean your dog does.
Other members of the Canidae family, like foxes, place great importance on the smell of faeces ranging from territory marking to reminders of where food is buried.
It’s quite possible that the desire to roll in something smelly is a leftover instinct passed down from your dog’s ancestors as a way of showing the other members of the pack where they had been that day.
Alternatively, it could be as a way of disguising its own smell from prey, enabling the dogs to sneak up without being detected.
How to stop your dog rolling in fox poo
Dog behaviouralists are keen to point out that a dog rolling around in poo is not doing something strange or abnormal. It’s annoying to you the owner, but in terms of dog behaviour, it’s perfectly acceptable.
In order to discourage your dog from rolling in poo, then you could try a remote activated dog collar, whereby you press a button that causes a vibration in the dog’s collar when it is doing something you dislike.
Alternatively, you could just make a loud disapproving noise every time your dog does it so that it begins to associate rolling in poo with your displeasure.
If your dog likes to roll in fox poo in your garden, then the best way to stop it happening again is to get to the source of the problem and deter foxes from coming into your garden.
