The MGS Forum
Gardening in mediterranean climates => Wildlife in the garden (birds, butterflies, and how to attract them) => Topic started by: KatG on February 01, 2013, 06:06:18 PM
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Does anyone have any idea how to discourage Badgers? They are beautiful animals, but they make a hell of a mess. I frequently find entire plants uprooted and tossed aside - they clearly love the soft, damp soil.
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Thought you might like this! ;D ;D
(http://web-images.chacha.com/images/galleryimage603751259-jan-17-2012-600x644.png)
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I do, fantastic!
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It does not sound as if it is easy to get rid of badgers, chemical control (poison) is not allowed, at least not in the UK and the Nordic countries. I read that: ‘There are claims that male human urine, human hair clippings and lion dung spread on the garden may act as a deterrent, but these methods are not recommended’, and I don’t think there is any documentation showing that they are efficient. I have seen some trials with ultrasonic devices; they do not work, in spite of the manufacturers’ claim.
There are some guidelines that have been produced to help people who have a problem with badgers in their garden, see http://www.badger.org.uk/ . Go to About Badgers - Problems and at the end of the text see the pdf file.
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Katerina, I think Jorun's right - it seems virtually impossible to discourage badgers. Here in the UK we have two badger setts on our property, and the only thing which keeps them out for us is fencing using strong stock fencing, plus rabbit netting (there to keep the rabbits out) which is dug in about a foot and then angled out about a foot. Stock fencing on its own is useless as they just push or scrape underneath it, and they are quite strong enough to move sizeable rocks put across their runs.
Badgers are heavily protected in the UK by conservation laws, and this has allowed their numbers to build up enormously in the last couple of decades. Leaving aside the question of their contribution to the English and Welsh plague of tuberculosis in cattle, this has had the unfortunate effect that in our own area ground-nesting birds including skylarks and partridges have virtually disappeared, as have hares, all previously abundant here, although the type of farming here (largely pasture) has not changed during that period.
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Jorun, the 'cure' sounds worse than the affliction, and I haven't seen too much lion dung for sale in my area. I'm hoping now the plants are established the badgers won't wreak so much havoc. At my previous house I was regularly visited by two adults and their cub. They would wander around the courtyard every night in summer, hoovering up fallen mulberries. I suspect their eyesight is none too good since they would pass by, close enough for me to touch them, and only when I spoke were they startled.
The garden of my current house is surrounded by a 2.5m high dry stone wall, but they just climb over it. They clearly have powerful limbs. I used to lay large pieces of marble around new plants but they were just jettisoned as though they were balsa wood.
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Badgers don't like water much. So you might possibly consider a gadget called the Contech Scarecrow (http://www.contech-inc.com/products/home-and-garden-products/animal-repellents/scarecrow-motion-activated-animal-deterrent), which shoots out a water jet when it detects motion - but it has to be connected to a hose.
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I have never been fortunate/unfortunate enough to have Badgers visiting any of my gardens although they did live in the vicinity of our last house in the UK and we would go on "Badger watchings walks" late in the evening. As with all wild animals they can be a curse when foraging through gardens but it would seem that all of the suggestions made for deterring them do not work for long. I have tried the same deterrents, human hair , urine etc (but no lion or elephant's dung so far) for trying to keep porcupines at bay here in Umbria but to little avail and, as with the badgers, they are amazingly strong and can toss aside large stones with ease.
I have decided to live and let live is the best policy and avoid planting their favourite food plants - bulbs and iris in particular. What do badgers seem prefer or are they indiscriminate foragers?
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Don't know what plants they prefer but they're yours for life if you give them a peanut !
Actually they're carnivores (mostly) so I wouldn't expect them to eat the plants, JUST plough through them on the way to worms and beetles etc.
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My understanding is that they are omnivores and so yes, they are more interested in the grubs, roots and bulbs in the soil rather than the plant itself.
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The Contech Scarecrow looks interesting. Might work well on human interlopers too!
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Are badgers territorial? This sounds silly but people keep possums out of their gardens by sitting fluffy toy animals in trees. See if you can get some toy badgers so the real ones might think 'somebody else' lives there and go away.
If they like iris etc..then there must be something they hate. Garlic? A border of garlic along the fence line?
Otherwise this does work to keep possums off roses and I once used it to keep rabbits away from newly planted seedlings. Also harmless. Get a large jar of cheap supermarket brand camphorated chest rub (for winter colds & bronchitis). Smear generous dollops around your plants, on branches, along fences, over sticks and stones etc...the badgers won't like it if they get this on their noses and, hopefully, nick off!
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I have read that they may not like the smell of household ammonia, maybe you could dip the toy badger in that and try the combined effect?
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When I lived in Hampshire UK. I had a nightmare time with rabbits, deer and worst of all MOLES.
Reading all the suggestions above, reminds me of all the deterrents I tried to rid myself of moles. Human and animal waste, ultrasonic devices, even traps. All to no avail.
Then I eventually realised, I lived in the middle of a forest. And all the animals were probably trying to rid themselves of me.
So barring an all out cull (which no one wants), I agree with Umbrian, learn to live together.
I still have nightmares over my beautiful lawn, that I donated to the wellbeing of MOLES.
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Helena, Badgers are territorial, but not in the sense that you could keep them out by using a fake badger to warn them off. The territory of a particular badger family is really just its regular hunting ground, a kilometre or more across, but these territories all overlap. Even though badgers definitely treat the ground very close to their setts as "theirs" they don't seem proprietorial about the further country they range over. Also, it seems to us that badgers from different setts, even quite far apart, do visit their neighbours occasionally, as there are well worn runs, often very old, that seem to link the setts. Our own main sett, which is pretty extensive, had already been there "for ever" in the late 19th century.
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:D Had a real chuckle over this question when I got home from delivering my new book Ms to a 'reader' for his opinion of it. As I got out of my car at his home, about 5km from Tupelo Grove nursery and 15km my reader came out of his garden shed with his finger over his lips. Duly warned to be quiet I followed him uphill and into the garden outskirts where he pointed out a small family of 6 mature kangaroos and 4 joeys. They were in his apple orchard on quite a steep slope. The bigger 'roos were standing on their hind legs with their fore-paws (with large claws) pulling down into easy reach apple tree branches laden with apples and leaves. Several of the branches had been stripped bare of fruit and leaves and some bark. We have had a very dry summer and there is no fresh grass so the apple trees must be very acceptable substitutes for herbage. The question is whether or not the 'roos will remember this summer fresh-food source and return year after year now they have discovered it, or forget it once rains bring the grass back. We may not have badgers but we do have 'roos, and now my wife informs me she frequently sees fallow deer on the freeway verges when she leaves for work around 5.00AM every weekday morning. Oh Dear. tn
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Further evidence that wherever we choose to live and garden we need be tolerant towards the native population and find ways to get along together. :)
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Oh Umbrian, how do we become tolerant? Just now I have seen jays making themselves at home in the garden. They are searching for the small birds as their food source. Now, what deters jays?
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Nature sometimes seems cruel to us, but we have to accept that even jays need to be fed. We were out walking and we met an old lady who was watching some cats playing in a yard. She told us that one of them was a nice cat, but the other one was cruel, because it was chasing and killing birds and squirrels!
But I admit I get annoyed when the suet balls I have been offering the tits and sparrows are gobbled up in five minutes by the magpies. We finally found some perfect feeders which have room for 3-5 suet balls, they have an extra wide-meshed ball on the outside which allows the smaller birds, and the birds love them. The photo is not very good, it was taken from an upstairs window (as you can see, it's been snowing).
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We too have colonies of Jays around us, they nest in the small wood below our pool and their raucous cackling can be really annoying apart from their preying on the smaller birds that nest in the garden. I was delighted to find no magpies here, the scourge of our last garden in England, but soon came to realise that Jays are just as "bad" However I do think we have false values regarding wildlife in general and respond emotionally to animals and birds etc that look cute whilst hating others. A bit like weeds or insects etc in the garden, some are welcome and some definitely not. We love many butterflies for example but hate certain caterpillars, such as the Gypsy Moth ones that devestated our valley last year. Food chains within nature are very necessary and indeed the very basis of life and we have to learn not to respond so emotionally although I admit it is easier said than done. Old age helps ;)
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The badger problem has now paled into insignificance compared with the discovery of wild boar on a piece of land I own. A neighbour saw 12 of them nearby, drinking from a trough of water provided for cattle. The mess they have made is unbelievable. They have ploughed up large tracts of the olive grove, previously cloaked in Cyclamen in autumn. Massive stones have been displaced, walling demolished, and the whole area stinks. Happy as a pig in shit? I'm certainly not!