Foxes are maybe the prettiest, most charismatic, and deadliest pests we have to deal with. If it’s small, and it moves, it’s on their menu. This includes turkeys, pheasants, ducks, geese, chickens, lambs, piglets, rabbits, guinea pigs, and even kittens, puppies, and small dogs. They also like eating wind fallen fruit, berries, garbage, compost, birdseed, and poultry eggs. Foxes also carry rabies, sarcoptic mange, and distemper. They are also hosts for ticks, tick borne illnesses, and fleas. Foxes also use a process called fouling, through which they defecate everywhere and mark their territory with extremely potent urine, which makes their path quite a foul smelling one. This, of course, may start your own pets off on marking everything around them in a show of territorial superiority.
As in the recent years the natural habitat of foxes has decreased significantly, they have been seen marching towards urban areas, looking for shelter and food amongst houses and yards, where they can easily find food. Foxes have learnt to easily adapt to the new environments, and whether the foxes occur in urban or rural areas, the effects of their damage are the same, but the ways of preventing their attack is different, so it needs to be treated differently.
The most common damaging effects foxes can have on your property are the following:
- They can attack the animals in your yard, whether they are chickens, rabbits, ducks or geese. Beings a small sized animal, the fox will only attack other animals that it can easily pray on.
- If they find an uncovered trash bin they can scatter all the waste around your yard. They are known for rummaging through the garbage bins they find, until they manage to overturn it and spread it around. This is something cats and rats also do, so make sure you keep your bins covered at all time.
- Foxes are also known for destroying your yard and garden. They will dig through the yard to build dens or to find earthworms or will remove the bulbs from your garden and eat the vegetables you’ve planted;
- They are also known to steal toys or shoes they find in the yard. The same as cats, foxes are quite playful and will use these findings to entertain themselves and their pups.
- Foxes can also spread diseases such as rabies. Animals they come in contact with are the ones mostly affected, however, they can also spread rabies to humans, either through biting, or by humans coming in contact with already infected yard animals, such as chicken.
- They smell foxes emit is quite foul, as the substances found in their urine and feces are meant to alert other foxes or other pray animals in the surroundings. They use this technique to mark their territory, so if they have build a den near your house, you will know this by sensing a stingy smell in your yard.
- The mating call the females use is quite annoying and can be heard from December until February, as that is their fertile period.
As is the case with most invaders, the key measure that must be taken in an endeavour to prevent infestation is modifying your property so that it becomes inhospitable to them. In the case of foxes invading an urban area, the most efficient way of keeping them away is by minimizing the waste quantity and that of other sources of food.
Advice on how to keep foxes away from your home in an urban area
The most efficient measure of keeping foxes away, is by making your property inhospitable for them. You can build a fence around your property, by using either steel mesh or electric fencing. Be sure that you bury the mesh at least 8 inches (20 cm) deep, as foxes are great diggers and can easily make their way underneath it if not installed properly. Bend the mesh at a 90º angle and extend it outward, so the fox can’t find a way past if it digs downward, and also weigh it down with brick or rubble before covering it with soil, to make the digging even harder. A large fox can jump or climb an impressive height, so an ordinary fence should be at least 6 ft (1.8m) high to keep out foxes. You can also bend the top of the fence outward as this will make it more difficult for the foxes to jump over it. As foxes usually examine the fence before trying to climb or jump it, if they come into contact with an electric wire, the painful shock will usually discourage them from trying.
You can use repellents that discourage the foxes to mark the territory as their own. If they can sense that the space has already been claimed by a different animal, they will avoid coming into contact with it and will search for a different shelter. There are several types of such repellents in specialised stores, most of them having in their composition urine from fox predators such as coyotes, cougars or bears. By using these substances containing smells the foxes avoid, you will be able to keep the away from your home.
You should also eliminate sources of food on your property, so that foxes are not tempted to cross onto your yard. Keeping the property clean, gathering all the leftovers and throwing them inside garbage bins that are tightly closed, are just some ways of making sure the foxes will not be attracted by the smell of food.
Having pets such as larger dogs is also a way of keeping the foxes away, as they will be intimidated and keep away from your yard. Should you have small pets, instead, make sure to keep them safe as foxes are prone to attack anything smaller than them.
Foxes like quiet, solitude, darkness, and security, so you can also deter them by using ultrasonic devices that make a high-pitched noise, motion sensitive devices that squirt water when an animal approaches or devices that flash light when triggered by motion. All these elements will keep away not only foxes, but other pests as well, as they create a stressful environment for them.
Solutions for keeping foxes away in a rural areas
Most people who live in rural areas take care of livestock, especially chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits, animals which are frequently attacked by foxes. By keeping in mind that you can use the methods mentioned above, here are some additional ways of repelling these pests from coming in contact with the livestock you have around the house.
Nothing you do to get rid of a fox will have any long term success unless you make some changes around your yard. Remove any shelter or hiding places they could use and keep the vegetation in check. Take care of the wood and trash piles around your house, along with anything else that can become a potential den site. Remove any standing water, secure your trash, pick up fallen fruit and make sure you cover the compost bins as well, and also do not leave any dog or cat food outside. Ensure that building structures such as those of shades, porches, garages, greenhouses, etc., are secure enough not to allow foxes to dig underneath them and create dens, as this can also cause structural damage to these areas.
Don’t let the chickens out too early in the morning in unprotected areas because the first hours of the day are rather quiet and that can encourage foxes to attack, as they will think that there is no one around to bother them. Foxes don’t like to be exposed and won’t risk to attack in an area where they can hear noises. Therefore, it is better to make sure that there is a source of noise around your animals, such as a radio left on non-stop, to give the impression the area is constantly inhabited.
Be vigilant and check daily the protective fences you have around your animal shelters. Holes or gaps occurring in your defense system can be immediately assigned to foxes, as they are excellent diggers. Foxes can also chew the protective wire mesh fences, so it would be better to replace them with a more resistant type, such as a mesh welded wire mesh, or an electric one which is increasingly used by farmers lately. You should also build secured wooden floors, so that the animal shelters will have an extra protective layer that will keep the foxes away. Stay one step ahead of foxes, as they have earned the reputation of the most cunning animals for a reason.
Take into consideration the fact that foxes can also attack during the day, so by constantly checking on your animals, you will confuse the praying fox, and it will no longer know what is the best time to attack. Pay extra attention to your animals in the spring when they are giving birth to their babies and also during autumn, when mothers usually leave their younglings to find food on their own. This is when they are most vulnerable, as they are just learning about the danger of predators. Also, fox pups that are just learning to hunt are more daring, as they have not yet learnt to fear humans.
Foxes are omnivores and can also eat fruits, so it is best not to include these in the food you give to birds around your house. Make sure you supervise the shelter of your animals when they retire in the evening, as the sly foxes can also wait inside the shelter and decimate the population of chickens, ducks or geese during the night. Make sure that the shelters are safe before the animals enter them, and also make sure you properly lock them, so that foxes cannot make their way inside during the night.
Should you want to drive the foxes out of their den, consider waiting until their pups are old enough to travel. You can then block entrances with repellent, by soaking rags in commercial fox repellent and placing them in the path of the entrance. As most dens are build in enclosed spaces such as crawlspaces or rock shelters, they will normally only have one entrance. Replace the rags daily, in order to keep the repellent fresh. Once you notice the rags have no longer been removed from the front of the entrance and you are sure all the foxes have left, you can permanently block the entrance with a more substantial barrier, such as bricks or cinder blocks.
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