Protecting grapes from badgers

[ameno]

When I went to the allotment today I found that all but one of the bunches of nearly-ripe grapes had been eaten by something. I'm quite sure it was badgers, as the individual bunches were in mesh bags to protect from birds and rodents (which the badgers had just pulled off), and the ground around the vine was all trampled. The things had even pulled half of the vine off its support wires to get to the grapes (fortunately the damage to the plant itself was fairly minimal, and I was able to simply lift that half back up again).
These last two weeks badger actively at my allotment seems to have increased tenfold. Almost all of my grass paths have been scratched to pieces, too, and they're digging holes all over the place. Although for some reason they don't seem interested in sweetcorn (they didn't take mine earlier in the year, and another plot still has some, untouched), nor do they seem to have any interest in beetroot, two veg which badgers are supposed to target.

Anyway, clearly I need to come up with counter-measures for next year, and I'm undecided between two options.

[ameno]

One is simply to change the way I tie in and train the vine slightly so as to effectively raise the canopy of the vine, and make it so that most or all of the grapes are out of badger reach (the one bunch of grapes I have left is the highest bunch, on the side which the badger didn't manage to pull down off the support. Also, grape vines on a neighbouring plot have had low bunches taken but higher ones are still there).
The other is to build a badger-proof fence around the vine. As long as I build it correctly, this should be a more sure-fire protection, but it's also going to be quite expensive (unless I get lucky and find someone giving away chain link fence and posts on Facebook Marketplace).

Any suggestions, or any other ideas on how to keep them away?

(For some reason it wouldn't let me post all this in one post. Too long, maybe?)

[Plot70]

With animals larger than gnawing rats a low power electric fence is now an affordable option. They are used on pheasant breeding pens within a mile of where my plot is. There is a big badger sett also about a mile away and they have learned not to cross mesh fencing thanks to the local pheasant shooting.
The electric units at out local country store have either full power at under £100 or a bit more for a three setting one.

You just need to scrounge a second hand mobility scooter battery and hide the exciter from view.

[Nicos]

Oh…. I’m sorry to hear about that. You must feel gutted.

I did look into badger proof fencing when we first moved here as we have a badger set a few hundred metres from our garden/ potagers.
The price of badger fencing (HT15/158/8 Badger Fencing Mesh) is horrendous and I’ve only seen it on long rolls, so unless you could get several neighbours going in with buying a roll…..?
Specific to badger Electrical fencing wasn’t cheap either - and can easily be pinched ( from what I’ve seen)

We decided to wait and see what happens and were surprised by the lack of attention they gave us. Yes, they occasionally dig up areas of grass looking for grubs but so far we’ve been lucky with our crops .
They’ve clearly been attracted to your site and my thoughts would go more with your first option of making the grapes more difficult to access…particularly less accessible than your neighbour’s grapes. It’s that route of ‘why bother struggling when the next plot along is much less effort’ …which in effect yours , this year,turned out to be the easiest option.

To make yours less attractive generally there are a few simple options to at least try first maybe ( as well as securing the vines higher)
Try crushing and scattering some chilli peppers near the vines. Also dotting some cheap citronella candles along the length on the ground - or even just tucked into the actual plant ( give them a scratch from time to time to help keep up the release of scent)
Maybe even pee nearby. They apparently are wary of male human urine.
Maybe even buy a few solar powered sensor detection lights strategically placed.I’ve bought a few for near our hen house to deter foxes- and they were really cheap.
So long as your plot is less inviting than the others then they’re more likely to head off in their direction.

Hope those ideas are at least worth considering?

As an aside…on my previous plot we rabbit proofed with buried fencing etc about 1/2 the plot and only grew the more precious crops in that section. An alternative for you might be to fence off a smaller but dedicated badger proof area which includes the vine and plant your sweetcorn , beetroot etc within that area.
If you go down the fencing route, buy the right quality - they can rip through other netting like tissue paper.

[ameno]

I've heard that most supposed badger deterrents don't really work (at best they might work to start with but then the badgers soon get used to them), but it might be worth trying some of the cheaper ones, at least (like chilli or urine).

It doesn't help that the badgers are living on the allotment site itself. Indeed we think we've found the sett entrance, and it's only about 20 metres away from the top of my plot.

[Nicos]

Ooo…that’s close ameno
You just need to encourage them to ‘Walk on By’ as the song goes!
Maybe put up a sign with an arrow saying ‘All you can eat buffet this way’ pointing towards your neighbours plots!

That should raise a few eyebrows!

[GF3]

I have badgers that come into the garden every night and gouge out tufts of grass from the lawn. When I first planted the apple trees in the ground (April 2021) within a couple of days the badgers had dug out the loose soil around the trees ripping out some of the roots. I searched around on the internet for a possible solution - I also came across the male urine idea. I also read that they don't like the feel of wire mesh under foot, so I covered the soil around the base of the trees with chicken wire and have had no problems since. They still gouge out the grass and last week dug up some privet hedge plants that I planted but they leave the trees alone - I have five of them with chicken wire covering the soil.

[ameno]

Well, it's been three days and that high bunch of grapes is still there, untouched. I'm pretty sure there's been more digging, though, so the badgers are definitely still active.
Hopefully this means that the bunch is completely out of their reach, so if I train the vine such that all of next year's bunches are similarly high then I might be able to avoid having them eaten.

[Muddy_Boots]

There is always the double-barrel solution but .......... only joking.

In my ex-allotments we had a real badger problem, the sett was in someones back garden and they had a run through the back of peoples garden into one corner of the allotments. They have caused havoc every year as they dig carrots up and just leave the tops on your plot and eat the rest. They waited for the sweetcorn to be almost ripe and then trampled it down to the ground so they can gorge themselves and leave the husks as evidence you had some ..... almost. They dug everywhere, we first thought the moles were bad but the black and white moles were worse. We tried everything and even barbed wire didn't deter them, if you put wire mesh fencing up and buried it partially they dug under the buried wire mesh and got in. Eventually one guy bought a cheap battery powered electric fence and it was the ONLY method that stopped them, guess they didn't like getting zapped on their noses.

Never heard of them taking grapes but they are opportunists and will take anything that edible and especially if it starts to smell sweet like grapes do. I was further down from where they were coming in but they still patrolled my plot, I know because they were captured on my wildlife camera I had set up which had night vision. After the electric fence went up they tended to stay away from the allotments, they only things at night I captured after that were foxes.

Even if you put stuff high they will eventually work out how to get at them, usually that involves destruction in some shape or other so I'd say the electric route is the only way you could stop them.