Hello this is Ben from the Fox Repellent Expert website and welcome to  the latest episode of this podcast.

This episode is the eighth in this series looking at what the UK’s foxes are up to during each month of the year. This time I’m looking at the month of August and hopefully it will give you some insight into the behaviour of the foxes in your local area.

Now, August is a bit of a unique month in the UK, not just for foxes but for people too. The school holidays are in full swing, the kids are off so you might be at home with parenting or grandparenting responsibilities. Many adults also use August to take some much-needed annual leave. It’s peak holiday season, with supposedly peak summer weather, and this means that more of us are spending time at home rather than being at work, school or generally busy with life.

Because of this, you’re much more likely to spot foxes and notice their behaviour in your garden than you might at other times of year. Even if the foxes themselves haven’t drastically changed their habits, the fact you’re around more means you’ll probably catch more glimpses of them, whether it’s a couple of adolescent cubs playfighting early morning or an adult dutifully foraging for food in the evening. It’s a great time to really observe what’s happening in your garden, and local area, and see some of the fascinating interactions between the cubs, who are now nearly fully grown, and the adult foxes.

So, if you’ve found yourself noticing a bit more fox activity in your garden lately, it’s not just the foxes that are out and about; it’s also because many of us are home and paying attention. August can offer a unique window into their world, even if you’re just taking a break with a cup of tea in the garden.

In addition to being more noticeable because we’re at home more, foxes themselves are also particularly visible in August due to their behaviour at this stage of the year. By now, the cubs are well-established adolescents—almost fully grown and becoming more independent each day.

This means that the playful scuffles you might have seen earlier in the summer are starting to take on a more serious tone. Rivalries between siblings become more pronounced as they begin to establish their individual roles and positions within the family group. You might hear or see more aggressive interactions, with cubs squabbling over food or challenging each other for dominance.

These tensions are a natural part of their development, as the cubs prepare for the time when they’ll eventually need to fend for themselves. So if you hear a bit of noise or notice some more intense activity in your garden, that’s just part of the foxes’ growing-up process. It’s a crucial time for the young foxes as they transition from the playful days of spring into the more competitive world of adulthood.

Because of the holiday season and the maturing nature of the cubs, August is also a very busy time on FoxRepellentExpert.com. With more people at home, enjoying their gardens, many find themselves encountering foxes more often and experiencing the disruptions they can bring. This means that plenty of you are looking for advice, information, and products to help reduce common fox problems in your gardens.

If you’re listening in August and you’re dealing with issues like digging, noise, or general fox activity, I’ll put a link in the show notes to an article on the Top 10 Fox Deterrents. It covers a range of steps you can take and products you can use to help reduce these problems. There’s definitely light at the end of the tunnel—though hopefully not the kind of tunnel that foxes like to dig! (That’s a little joke for you). But seriously, there are effective ways to manage foxes in your garden, so don’t lose hope!

Before I wrap up this episode, I wanted to share a little story from earlier this month. I went to a BBQ hosted by an old friend in St Albans, and it turned out he had a bit of a fox problem himself. He’s got a garden office at the back of his garden, and he’s been dealing with a fox that likes to den underneath it. He told me he often hears the fox moving around beneath the floorboards and wanted some advice on how to handle the situation.

After taking a look around, I noticed that it was way too easy for the fox to get underneath his office. So, I suggested he block off some of the access points using planks of wood, just to make it less inviting. I also gave him a FoxWatch ultrasonic device to see if it could help reduce the fox’s visits to his garden. He’s going to keep me posted on how it works out, and I’m curious to see if it does the trick.

St Albans, along with nearby areas like Harpenden, Welwyn Garden City, and Hatfield, is known for having quite a high fox population. With the leafy suburbs surrounded by countryside, it’s pretty much ideal fox territory. So, if you live around there, you might be familiar with this sort of thing yourself.

I’m even thinking about starting a series of articles on the website that focus on fox populations in specific areas. It might shed some light on the kinds of fox issues people are facing in your local area and, hopefully, give you a few ideas for managing foxes in your own garden. Keep an eye out for those if you’re curious about what’s going on with the local foxes near you!

Well, that’s it for this episode of the Fox Repellent Expert podcast. I hope it’s been insightful and informative, regarding some of the fox activity in your area at this time of year. I’ll put any links mentioned in this episode in the show notes.

If you found today’s episode interesting, you can subscribe to the Fox Repellent Expert podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please feel free to leave a review as it helps other people find the show.

Thank you very much for listening and I’ll see you next time.