Badger Damage

[owdboggy]

This is what has been upsetting me to the extent of not feeling like doing anything in the garden at all.





You cannot see from these pictures the huge holes they have dug, under the roots of the shrubs, the number of Tulip bulbs eaten, the Brodaeia dug out and all the herbaceous plants destroyed.

[Missredhead]

That is such a shame Owdboggy....I do feel for you. ..

[Rosefriend]

It is very similar to the damage that we get here with Wild Boars...they can trash a whole garden in a night...awful !! I can understand how you feel...

[Tig]

I recall the two occasions a badger got into our garden - the first time it 'excavated' the path behind the shrubs, the second time it did less damage in our garden but forced its way through the back fence into a neighbours garden, wrecked the fence which they had to replace. I was thankful it didn't excavate our borders, although it remains a worry because I have seen them roaming up and down the road at night, and the property where it got into our garden from is empty at the moment with no rear gate and they climbed over the wire fence last time, then couldn't get back out.
Hope you can find where they are getting in and do something to stop them.

[owdboggy]

We think we have found and blocked off where they were getting in ..for the moment. We have got some wire fencing to go in when it is dryer as fitting it involves hedge cutting. Farmer reckons it is because they have had 2 very good breeding years so there are more of them about. He was waiting to see if they begin digging up the seed potatoes in the fields, as they have done in the past.

[Barbara]

Wild life is lovely when it's bothering someone else, I feel for you OB, all the work in the garden undone in no time at all.

[Rosefriend]

I do hope you have managed to find the right gap owdboggy,....moles were enough for me - hope we don't get Badgers...

[Ron]

I've been looking around the internet for something that might help deter the badgers, some even suggested human urine, seemingly that doesn't work. One suggestion that may have merit though is a cheap battery powered radio in a plastic bag set to a 'talk' station. The volume can be set low, in fact it's said to work better that way. They are wary of human voices. Don't know if it will work but maybe worth a try?

[owdboggy]

With a bow to Hubris, we have had no incursions for 2 nights, so we hope that we have managed to find and block the entry point. We will fit some more wire netting when it stops raining. Apparently they follow a scent trail and if you manage to disrupt that for a length of time they stop following it. We can but hope.

[Tig]

Still badger free OB?

[owdboggy]

May 13, 2016 14:26:51 GMT Tig said:

Still badger free OB?

So far, yes. We put up new fencing yesterday. There are signs that they are trying elsewhere on the front, so we will extend the new netting once the Berberis has finished flowering.

[Rosefriend]

May 13, 2016 15:52:49 GMT owdboggy said:

May 13, 2016 14:26:51 GMT Tig said:

Still badger free OB?

So far, yes. We put up new fencing yesterday. There are signs that they are trying elsewhere on the front, so we will extend the new netting once the Berberis has finished flowering.

Now that really is good news !!

[owdboggy]

Think they may have been back last night. Need to fill in the holes they dug to be certain. Been out since very early morning so only just checked.

[owdboggy]

Definitely back in, they have now started on a different part of the garden. More holes, more tulips gone. Very, very disheartened. Feel like giving up altogether and turning the garden back to just grass and selling it as a horse paddock.

[Rosefriend]

May 15, 2016 8:36:13 GMT owdboggy said:

Definitely back in, they have now started on a different part of the garden. More holes, more tulips gone. Very, very disheartened. Feel like giving up altogether and turning the garden back to just grass and selling it as a horse paddock.

Oh owdboggy, what a mess - I am sooo pleased that our Voles and Moles have moved on - they made enough mess and I have lost quite a few plants but a Badger is a hell of a lot bigger!!

[owdboggy]

Just had another look and the damage is even more extensive than we had first thought. They are now digging up the Brodiaea, Scilla sibirica, Schyzostylis blubs. In doing so they are destroying herbaceous stuff and shrubs too. We are going to have to seriously look at spending a humongous amount of money and putting up secure fencing all the way round the garden. Not sure I am capable of doing it myself these days either so there could be the price of paying someone on top of the materials.

[Rosefriend]

May 15, 2016 13:57:37 GMT owdboggy said:

Just had another look and the damage is even more extensive than we had first thought. They are now digging up the Brodiaea, Scilla sibirica, Schyzostylis blubs. In doing so they are destroying herbaceous stuff and shrubs too. We are going to have to seriously look at spending a humongous amount of money and putting up secure fencing all the way round the garden. Not sure I am capable of doing it myself these days either so there could be the price of paying someone on top of the materials.

Is there any chance of making some kind of a "deal" with the farmer owdboggy,??Perhaps he would help a bit with money - is there damage on his side?

[owdboggy]

You must be joking. He has not in 20 years even mended his fence round the outside of our property. We have maintained it since it is for our security. In any case the badgers are getting in from the road and that is most definitely our fence. The badgers are not doing anything to his land, except where they have already dug into the drainage ditch edge.
Actually we have never met the land owner either.

[Tig]

Have you tried an old battery operated radio OB? It may be worth giving it a go before spending a lot of money of fencing.

[Chuckles]

Really feel for you owdboggy , Tig , idea sounds like a plan. Electric fencing springs to mind as a possible deterant or you could try some of the ultrasonic alarms or cloth strips soaked with Citronella, Olbas Oil, Ralgex or similar strong smelling substances hung around the perimeter of the problem areas, I'm sure there are other things you can use but there are laws on what you can and can't use as I'm sure you know.

[owdboggy]

Badgers in again last night and a lot of damage too.
We think that they are climbing over the gate, so have just spent the morning fixing wire netting on the top of the gate, leaning outwards. Next I am going to dangle strips of plastic bag on the netting as they are supposed to dislike the movement from them. Not a lot else we can do. The perimeter here is very long and the fencing around is not actually ours on most of it. We have reinforced the fencing on the bits which do belong to us.
Next step is to add fencing on the inside of the perimeter, but that means a lot of pruning and post adding. More money.
Either that or we dig every thing out and turn the garden back to grass and sell it as a horse paddock.

[Rosefriend]

May 30, 2016 11:13:31 GMT owdboggy said:

Badgers in again last night and a lot of damage too.
We think that they are climbing over the gate, so have just spent the morning fixing wire netting on the top of the gate, leaning outwards. Next I am going to dangle strips of plastic bag on the netting as they are supposed to dislike the movement from them. Not a lot else we can do. The perimeter here is very long and the fencing around is not actually ours on most of it. We have reinforced the fencing on the bits which do belong to us.
Next step is to add fencing on the inside of the perimeter, but that means a lot of pruning and post adding. More money.
Either that or we dig every thing out and turn the garden back to grass and sell it as a horse paddock.

Not up to date in the UK these days - are Badgers a protected species owdboggy,??

[Tig]

What a nuisance for you, I thought your previous efforts had kept them out as you hadn't posted again. They are good climbers, they had to climb over a wire fence to get into our garden. If the wire and plastic doesn't deter them can you put in a taller gate that they can't climb?

[owdboggy]

They are protected so only the Gov't can kill them.
Bigger gate.mmmmmmmmm This is a double gate so something tall to fill the gap would be a leetle expensive. Even replacing like with like was over £60 last time we looked.
We thought we had cracked it too. Found a digging at the bottom of the garden too. Think that was a bees nest. That means they are getting in elsewhere as well.

[Tig]

I hope you can get the better of them, before they decide your garden is their territory. It would be a shame to put it all back to grass, and they would still dig that up I expect.

[owdboggy]

Well, the fencing etc. has not worked. there was even more damage than usual last night. No idea what to do next. Every other solution suggested is going to cost more money than we have to implement.

[Rosefriend]

I was chatting to a farmer here owdboggy, and mentioned Badgers and he said that he had only once had a problem with them in our area and his Grandma has cooked up a stinking concoction of "whatever" - rotten eggs, fish heads etc etc...anything and everything that stank basically. Trouble is that you have cats - you don't want them eating or digging down to a "toxic, smelly brew"!!