How do you stop foxes digging up your field?

[fornema]

Any ideas om how to stop foxes digging up your field? Last night was the last straw when a hole they had previously dug and i had filled in had been dug to about a foot deep grrr annoyingly its in there turnout and just worried when they go for a hoolie

 

[CorvusCorax]

A shotgun should do the trick.


**sorry, sorry, sorry

 

[Littlelegs]

Lol at cc. Offer your field to replace some national trust land lost to a certain drag hunt this season, should do the trick. Yeah, yeah, sorry!

 

[POLLDARK]

I fill any holes from rabbits etc with horse dung, it seems to do the trick. You have to tamp it down & top up when it sinks a bit so the horse won't trip on it.

 

[Smarties]

A shotgun should do the trick.


**sorry, sorry, sorry

took the words right out of my mouth

 

[Jools1234]

get someone in to shot them-no apology i am fed up with dogs being covered in fox s**t

 

[guido16]

Agree with others, get your local gamekeeper in to take care of it.

 

[fornema]

A shotgun should do the trick.


**sorry, sorry, sorry

Hahaha this was what I was thinking its got to that point now id do anything to stop them. Unfourtunatly the land I'm on is owned by the university of Cambridge and they'd probably chuck me off if i shot them Also pretty much in the city so cant get the hunt to come through, I would if i could

 

[fornema]

I fill any holes from rabbits etc with horse dung, it seems to do the trick. You have to tamp it down & top up when it sinks a bit so the horse won't trip on it.

I tried this but it made them dig the holes even bigger the ones i fill in get dug up everynight and just getting too big now.

Also where does the ground they take out even go

 

[CobsGalore]

We have a family of foxes living in our field, they have dug 3 huge holes which go underground. I presume they link to each other as I see a fox go down one and up another.

I haven't tried filling them in as they will obviously just dig it back up or somewhere else in the field, so I have simply taped each hole off to ensure the horses don't fall down.

They are happy with 'their home' and don't cause any bother. They don't dig new holes as long as I don't fill their current ones in. We are lucky to have a 6 acre field though so there's plenty of room for both horses and foxes!

 

[Ibblebibble]

fence off the hole to keep horses safe from it, have a you got a man who will come and mark his territory for you? supposed to work but i've never had to rely on it as i just get man with gun to shoot them

 

[muff747]

O dear, we have got a lot of trigger happy killers replying to this thread -
O sorry - sorry - sorry
Maybe OP would have posted this on the Hunting forum if they had wanted answers like these sorry sorry sorry and another triple SORRY

 

[Hairy Old Cob]

Easy Keep the Tool shed Locked so they cannot get to the spades

Or Shoot them

 

[lcharles]

Have a Foxy-Bingo sign made up to woo them out and then, sha-bang!!! x shotgun there heads off!! x

 

[Tormenta]

We have a family of foxes living in our field, they have dug 3 huge holes which go underground. I presume they link to each other as I see a fox go down one and up another.

I haven't tried filling them in as they will obviously just dig it back up or somewhere else in the field, so I have simply taped each hole off to ensure the horses don't fall down.

They are happy with 'their home' and don't cause any bother. They don't dig new holes as long as I don't fill their current ones in. We are lucky to have a 6 acre field though so there's plenty of room for both horses and foxes!

See! A bit of tolerance and the problem is solved! Without the need to shoot every Fox in sight!

 

[Wagtail]

Wish we had a few more foxes. It is like Watership Down here.

OP, as someone else has said, just use electric fencing to fence off the area.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Roll up, roll up, I'm giving out a free sense of humour, if anyone wants one?

 

[Archangel]

You could try a rag soaked in fence paint buried in the entrance. We had to do this (reluctantly) with a very active bunny family as my big horse is so heavy that he would cause the tunnels to collapse and suddenly disappear up to his knee. They relocated themselves to the bank.

We also had a huge sett occupied by both fox and badger on the bank. When I first moved there the local badger watch monitored it. After they had been seen off several times by my mare they came and saw me and said the sett was now off watch as it was adequately guarded by a horse

 

[fornema]

NONE of these wholes are linked they live a good few hundred yards down the field where the horses dont go. If i tried to fence them off i would literally have no field left they just dig big and little holes for the hell of it everywhere.

Have seen especially that they will try and dig up any horse poo which even if i leave half an hour they have a go and dig a whole.

I may ask the landowner to remove them (in the way that they choose ) if it continues as its getting dangerous how many holes they dig everyday and only really in my field which is poo picked often and dosnt have any long grass and not even the field which the foxes live in.

Wagtail- Id happily post them to you they are single most irritating thing ever and just downright horrible as the recently have killed a kitten, pheasants and monkjacks.


IN ALL SERIOUSNESS does anyone know something that i could spray or something they dont like ?

 

[Queenbee]

Easy Keep the Tool shed Locked so they cannot get to the spades

Or Shoot them

damn it, damn it, damn it!!! I was going to say this

 

[Littlelegs]

If its actual earths they are digging, & the ground allows it you could try driving heavy vehicles over in the hope the vibration gets rid? We're kind of in the middle of town & country, so the majority are town foxes who perhaps react differently. But I have noticed once our hays done there is a rapid relocation of foxes. Only problem is they don't go far, so won't help much on the killing front.

 

[Suelin]

You could try the trick my neighbour farmer uses to move badgers on away from his cattle. Pour some creosote around the entrances and down the hole a bit. With badgers they don't like the smell and move away, might work for foxes and would be worth a try surely.

 

[Patterdale]

Get some massive wolves or similar to eat the foxes.

When wolves get out of hand, find a lion to control the wolves - try Essex?

This seems alarmingly simple to me????

 

[Suelin]

I have to say I did wonder about Lion Poo, which I believe you can actually buy (I have no idea where from) shove that around the hole. It might scare them off. Dafter things happen I guess. I'm still in favour of trying the creosote thing though.

 

[Asha]

Have a Foxy-Bingo sign made up to woo them out and then, sha-bang!!! x shotgun there heads off!! x

Icharles, i really take exception to this. Im quietly trying to read H&H forum, without anyone in the office noticing, and you go and post this !!

I nearly fell off my chair laughing, my colleague was on a conference call and they all wanted to know what i was laughing at.

Cover well and truly blown !!

 

[happyhunter123]

O dear, we have got a lot of trigger happy killers replying to this thread -
O sorry - sorry - sorry
Maybe OP would have posted this on the Hunting forum if they had wanted answers like these sorry sorry sorry and another triple SORRY

No, no, no certainly not! For the true fox hunter, shooting of foxes is the greatest crime. Such answers would be unacceptable, I would hope, in the Hunting forum! Anyway, to deter foxes, a electric fence is undoubtedly your best choice, or maybe try some sort of smelly fox repellent (although in a large field it probably wouldn't work).

 

[Star_Chaser]

I'm not a happy hunter but have to disagree a little a 'well shot' fox is what I deem ideal. Its the idiots that pot shot and miss or leave the poor thing maimed and still living that really should be given a swift kick up the rump. Rifle shot not shotgun is swift and far more accurate if you have to part with them.

At least with hunting they get a fair chance at survival and they get a decent breeding season so that its survival of the fittest and not just some mass slaughter.

I still find it totally off the trolley that some people feed them like pet dogs and then wonder why when they have no fear of people that they don't survive long.

 

[happyhunter123]

I'm not a happy hunter but have to disagree a little a 'well shot' fox is what I deem ideal. Its the idiots that pot shot and miss or leave the poor thing maimed and still living that really should be given a swift kick up the rump. Rifle shot not shotgun is swift and far more accurate if you have to part with them.

At least with hunting they get a fair chance at survival and they get a decent breeding season so that its survival of the fittest and not just some mass slaughter.

Don't worry, I wasn't really being serious. It's just that in the past (at least), a fox hunting man regarded the shooting of a fox as the deadliest sin! I still know a few hunting people today who think that foxes should be left for the hunt and the hunt only to control.

 

[fornema]

Get some massive wolves or similar to eat the foxes.

When wolves get out of hand, find a lion to control the wolves - try Essex?

This seems alarmingly simple to me????

Definitely the best suggestion so far, i think im going to have to try it ;P



A lot of you are suggesting things as though they are living there, they are definitely not living in these holes, they tend to dig them where a horse poo has been and then poo in it themselves if i fill it in they will dig it out etc etc most of them i can handle its just when they are digging foot deep holes in turnout areas its getting out of hand

 

[CorvusCorax]

Have you tried negotiating?