Hello this is Benjamin from the Fox Repellent Expert website and welcome to episode 11 of this podcast.

In this episode, I’m going to talk about what to do if foxes have made a den in your back garden and I’ll suggest some steps you can take to try and humanely get them to leave.

Urban foxes making dens in back gardens is a common problem for many people living in towns and cities. The biggest objection most people have is the mess they create while doing it.

They dig unsightly holes and throw soil everywhere and will often leave all sorts of detritus, like the remains of small mammals or other rubbish at the entrance to the den. It can make your garden look a real mess, so it’s perfectly understandable that you want to try and do something about it.

In order to tackle the problem, let’s first look at what a fox den is and the purpose it serves.

When we think of a stereotypical fox den, or fox earth, as they can also be called, we might think of somewhere in the countryside that consists of a tunnel leading to a series of underground chambers.

While these types of den do exist in rural locations, they are incredibly energy intensive and time-consuming for foxes to dig from scratch. So wherever possible, foxes will try and take the easier option and use something pre-existing like an old fox den, an abandoned badger sett or rabbit warren.

In an urban setting, like a back garden, you might have already discovered that foxes are very creative and can create a den out of something much more rudimentary.

It’s usually the vixen that will ultimately choose the location. She’ll get pregnant in January and will want to find a cool, dark, sheltered spot for when she gives birth after her 53-day pregnancy, normally in late February or early March.

There’s an abundance of choice for denning vixens in our back gardens. Common places are under decking, sheds or garages and with more and more people working from home, we’re seeing increasing numbers of garden offices and summerhouses – both of which are great for digging under and setting up a den.

Once a den has been established, the foxes will continue to make use of it intensively for the first couple of months and you may well see an increase in fox activity in April and May, as the cubs venture out more often, practising their digging, hunting and territory-marking skills – much to many people’s annoyance.

The cubs will be above ground more and more often as spring becomes summer and the fox family will usually leave the den for good between June and July. So, depending on when in the year you’re listening to this, there is a natural end to the issue, and we’ll look at how you can stop them coming back next year a little later.

However, I realise knowing they’ll leave at some point in summer is all very well, but if you’ve got denning foxes making a mess in your garden right now, what can you do to try and reduce the problems right now?

Well, it’s important to understand that getting foxes to leave their den and go somewhere else before they’re ready is difficult, but it’s not impossible. You just need to be prepared to persevere and show a bit of patience while you do it.

The good news is that before choosing the den in your garden, the vixen will have scoped out a couple of other hidey-holes that she knows she can run to with her cubs if the main den is compromised.

Having a Plan B is all part of the fox’s process and they will use it if necessary, so you don’t need to feel guilty about whether or not you getting them to move on will leave them homeless. You won’t be. Just look at it as encouraging them to go somewhere else where they have a better chance of survival.

It’s at this point that I must point out that you cannot interfere with a fox den that’s got live foxes in it in any way.

I’m sure you’re like most people and wouldn’t even consider doing anything inhumane, but poking sticks down the hole, filing in holes or blocking up the entrance, knowing there’s live foxes in there is quite rightly illegal under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. So please don’t do anything like this. You can only block up a den once you know it’s empty and we’ll come to how best to check that a little later.

While you can’t interfere with the den itself, you can make the area around the entrance to the den as uninviting and as unattractive as possible. If you can make the adult foxes feel uncomfortable about what they’re going to find at their front door, then that’s how you’re most likely to get the vixen to move her cubs somewhere else.

A good way of setting the foxes on alert is to position a FoxWatch Ultrasonic Deterrent, which I discussed in Episode 6, near the entrance to the den. Then every time the foxes come in and out of the den they will set off the irritating high-pitched noises. Constantly encountering the ultrasonic alarm when emerging from the den will create apprehension and cause for concern within the foxes and could lead to them deciding they’d be better off moving the cubs elsewhere.

In addition, You could also spray Scoot Fox Repellent around the entrance to the den, which will cover up the fox’s territorial scent-markings and make them think another fox is trying to take over. You’ll need to spray Scoot several times over the course of a week or two to make sure the foxes really get the message, but this is another option open to you to try and convince them to move.

Another possibility is to put down some prickle strips close to the entrance. Prickle strips are rows of spiky plastic meshing that are typically used to stop animals from pooing or digging in flowerbeds. The spikes aren’t sharp enough to cause the foxes any injury, but they are uncomfortable to walk on so will make getting in and out of the den much more of a challenge. The more difficult it is to access the den, without resorting to being inhumane, the more likely the family of foxes will go elsewhere.

Those are three different options that you can try to make a difference and each one works in a different way . The FoxWatch targets the foxes hearing, Scoot targets the sense of smell and prickle strips target the sense of touch, so combine all three and you’re really doing everything you can do to improve the situation. I’ll put a link to all three products in the show notes for this episode at foxrepellentexpert.com/episode11

So let’s say you’ve put in the hard work and foxes have decided to leave the den in your garden and go somewhere else. What can you do to ensure they don’t come back next year? Foxes breed and need a place to give birth every year, and we’ve already established they’ll take the easy route and use anything pre-existing wherever possible, so if you don’t want them coming back again then you need to do your best to remove the denning opportunities in your garden.

This is often a case of blocking up any empty spaces as comprehensively as possible. Depending on where the foxes have made their home, you could use soil, rubble, bricks, paving slabs, breeze blocks, wood, chicken wire – anything that makes it as difficult as possible for foxes to access the space in future.

If the den goes underground and you aren’t sure if the foxes have actually vacated it then you must do a test to ensure you are not accidentally trapping a live fox inside.

An easy way to do this is to take some screwed-up pieces of newspaper and stuff them into the entrance hole. If foxes are still using the den you’ll quickly see those pages of newspaper thrown to one side. If the newspaper is untouched after three or four days, you can be pretty certain the den has been abandoned and is safe to fill in.

If you want to be absolutely certain, you could install a motion-activated wildlife camera overlooking the entrance. With one of these set-up, you’ll quickly establish whether or not a fox is still using the den. These types of wildlife camera traps are great fun and you might be surprised at what visits your garden when you’re not watching. I’ll talk about the joys of having a garden wildlife camera in an upcoming episode.

And that’s pretty much the extent of what you can do.

If you live in an area where there is a high fox population, it’s inevitable you’ll get some sort of fox activity inspecting your gardening for a potential den. By continuing to use deterrents and removing denning opportunities the foxes that do occasionally visit will hopefully decide your garden is not suitable and continue their search elsewhere.

That’s it for this episode of the Fox Repellent Expert podcast. I hope that’s been helpful and that you’ve now got some practical information and ideas that you can use to tackle the fox den problems in your garden. I’ll put some links in the show notes for this episode which you can find at foxrepellentexpert.com/episode11.

If you found today’s episode interesting, you can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Please feel free to leave a review.

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