Foxes and Rats and Neighbours oh my!

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Tengu

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
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Wiltshire
They told Dad and not me which is telling.

Allegedly I have a family of foxes in the garden, and rats (and a muntjac) I need to do something.

(My Garden is a jungle but theirs is gravel...I swear they spray bleach over it every day...So you see our ideas on gardens are diametrically opposite)

Aside from clearing the garden and renting a terrier what do I do?
 

Toddy

Mod
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Jan 21, 2005
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S. Lanarkshire
A really powerful strimmer, you can hire them, and then rake everything up....unless you have a shredder type lawnmower that will tackle the resultant mess.
If you leave it, the rats will love it, so will the foxes who eat mostly worms, apparently, and the worms will love the mulchy mess from the strimmer.

I have no idea about the muntjac....do they not bark ? and have teeth sort of like boars ?
 
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TeeDee

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Nov 6, 2008
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Exeter
Aside from clearing the garden and renting a terrier what do I do?


Leave the dog where it is and just put some sweat equity in and clear the garden.

You've mentioned elsewhere you are looking for a job and can't find one.

Looks like one has turned up on your doorstep. :)
 
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Toddy

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Jan 21, 2005
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Unless your garden is massive I think you would notice a family of foxes! I’d be happy to have foxes in my garden - they could eat next doors chickens.

We have foxes; one vixen used our garden as a kind of creche for her pup. It sat behind the fence and whined when mum jumped over and went a wandering. She came back ten minutes later and off the pair went under the big fence at the nature walk to the burn.
When the cub grew up it used our garden by itself. They have an unfortunate habit of leaving droppings at the edges of their territory, I was kind of pleased it moved on and didn't leave offerings.
They will upturn heavy planters and the like though, and dig up flower beds and lawns in their incessant rooting for worms, frogs, and woodlice.
All in all, while it's nice to see them, I'm rather glad they just sort of move through my garden and don't hang around.
Bit like badgers really. They clambered over the front gate, and carved up the top of it so much that I had to fill the slats to level them off again before I painted. They are big, heavy beasts are badgers. They feasted under the bird feeder not two metres from where I'm sitting. They didn't mind our chatter or the window open to take photos.
I was told to discourage them because they become over confident and end up in contention with people who don't like their lawns badgered or foxed :rolleyes: I did hear the complaints from people who had their lawns turned into turned over messes night after night, but just kept quiet about where the sett was (other side of the burn in the wild ground at the back of a small factory)

If Tengu's neighbours are incredibly garden proud then they'll loathe her wilderness.
Me ? my home is tucked in a quiet corner and I happily leave room for the wild in my semi-tame space :) It's alive and healthy :)
 
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Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
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Berlin
The foxes come to hunt the rats.

If you like your garden how it is you don't need to do anything. It's in a natural balance.

If unemployed I would produce there my own food though.

And indeed I would tell the neighbour that he should concentrate in his own problems. If he doesn't like the surroundings of his home he is free to move somewhere else.

One also could look up the law about learning an instrument. In Germany you are allowed to play every day your trumpet at home for a full hour.
Without valves you can get them pretty cheap. If you play every day between 4 and 6 PM but in changing actual times, the neighbours surely will stop talking about your mice.

Even if you really want to learn it, it sounds horrible for a couple of years.

It can be highly recommended!
 
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slowworm

Full Member
May 8, 2008
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Devon
Are you sure it's not a Siberian Hampster? They're gradually spreading up from Torquay I gather.

On a serious note rats are probly something you should deal with. If you feed birds etc make sure you clear up afterwards and ensure rubbish is out of reach etc. If your neighbours feed the birds they are in all likelyhood responsible for the rats.

Foxes and deer will come and go and there's not much you can do to stop them. If you think there's a den lurking at the bottom of your garden you could clear it but many people seem happy for foxes to live in gardens and even some feed them.
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
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Berlin
Foxes with hungry children at home are surely more effective against rats than every house cat.

Some idiots in our garden colony stressed so long until someone came and caught them. Afterwards we got a horrible rabbit plague for many years...

In between they asked if bee keeping is allowed in a garden colony.

:rolleyes:
 
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C_Claycomb

Moderator staff
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Oct 6, 2003
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Bedfordshire
They told Dad and not me which is telling.

Allegedly I have a family of foxes in the garden, and rats (and a muntjac) I need to do something.

(My Garden is a jungle but theirs is gravel...I swear they spray bleach over it every day...So you see our ideas on gardens are diametrically opposite)

Aside from clearing the garden and renting a terrier what do I do?
Do you see anything about what your neighbours are complaining about as a problem that might be good to solve, or are you just looking for how to get them to stop bothering you with least effort?

As terrier rentals are not a thing, your options are limited to ignoring the neighbours or clearing the garden to some degree. Eliminating your neighbours is also an option, but not a good one!

Tengu hasn't told us enough to draw conclusions in this thread other than they had a conversation with her dad about what they see as vermin using her property as a base. This is not enough to lodge a complaint of harassment:rolleyes:. Nor is it reasonable to suggest taking up hobbies to be annoying on purpose.

We don't know what the garden looks like. We don't know what the neighbours garden looks like. We don't know exactly why the neighbours might be objecting to Tengu's garden situation, other than the previous thread stating they were fed up of her weeds spreading.

2013, asking for advice on how to get on with neighbours in general.
I feel I need a better relationship with them. I hardly know any of them. I live in a nice area and sometimes I wonder if Im missing out

May 2020 - dad draws Tengu's attention to her jungle and she asks for people to come help her clear it. Does make a start herself.

Sept 2020

September 2021 - sounds like the good work started in the spring of 2020 didn't get continued.
 
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