Badger Repellant

[meteor]

Good afternoon all, I have been visiting this forum since I suscribed to GYO magazine last autumn and hopefully your collective wisdom may help me. I have a large garden ( 2.95 acres) which I am trying to bring back to it's former glory after a decades of neglect and is surrounded on three sides by hundreds of acres of natural forest and wilderness. I am having trouble with badgers which wrecked the contents of one of my polytunnels last weekend, overturning propagators, sampling chitting potatoes and munched or trampled their way through my ealy peas, mannge tout and french beans. Is there a natural repellant I can put around the doors, I remember as a young boy my Dad would put hair clippings from the barber shop around the chicken coops regularly which kepy the fox at bay.This method does not work with badgers, is there any that will? I do not want to harm them just keep them out of the tunnels.
many thanks

[Nicos]

Ouch!!!!

..oh ..and welcome to the Vine!

The only thing I am aware of is electric fencing...either horizontal wires or a floppy mesh

[bearded bloke]

Badgers Trust have a leaflet >>> http://www.badger.org.uk/_Attachment...rces/55_S4.pdf

[meteor]

Thanks Nicos and Bearded bloke, I am going to set up a small eletric fence at the entrance to the problem tunnels thet have roll up flaps instead of conventional doors and the badgers easily get their heads under them and gain entrance. In the forest area nearby is a badger sett that has been there for generations and is full of badgers so hopefully this works. Thanks again for the advice

[Knight of Albion]

Nice to know that there are still some badgers left in Ireland!

I get badgers here. Beautiful creatures.

I don't want to hurt or kill anything so I've tailored my garden activities to be in harmony with the local wildlife.

Never tried this myself because I'm glad to see them, but an old timer (gardener) a few villages away used to swear blind by ... spending a penny.
May sound somewhat ridiculous but scent marking is something universally understood in the Animal Kingdom. So maybe there is something to it.
(Lion dung famously deters deer remember...)

As for the suggestion of a small electric fence. Yes that should do the trick. Badgers are creatures of habit, they've probably been passing through your garden for generations, truth be told probably generations before the house was even built. They'll soon learn to keep clear of your vegetable patch and pass on through.

Bear in mind, badgers whilst being omnivores, predominantly eat earthworms. When the weather is dry and the ground hard, it can be difficult for them to find enough food. Ditto when a female badger has cubs and cannot wander far from the sett. This is usually when badgers and humans can come into conflict.

[noviceveggrower]

Hi. Was in Maplins this morning and saw that they had several animal away devices. Have been on line to see if I could find it on their site. Could find the one I saw in store but did find one for £19.99 and it uses lights and noise. Sorry I can't do a link foe you have tried but can't do it just keep loosing your message.
Hope this is helpful for you.

[bretty666]

Ask your local zoo for some of the used bedding from the lion cages. apparently its enough to keep most animals at bay the smell of lion pee

[meteor]

Just an update, and thank you all for your help, the electric fence is working a treat, no breakins since although my cats are not best pleased with it.
cheers

[meteor]

Further update, a friend bought a new wildlife video recorder which she set up in my garden for a few nights of testing and also if we could find out what was tearing up the soil around my outdoor sweet corn beds and breaking some of the stems, turned out it was down to pheasants taking vigorous dust baths in the early morning. The most intriguing footage however was of a badger on the second night, he shuffled in from the forest, had a brief inspection the compost heap, dug up a few items further on and ate them , inspected most items and beds and generally had good nose around until he came up to the first polytunnel and suddenly stopped in his tracks just in front of the door and gave it a wide berth, he did this with each tunnel in turn continuing on to the top of the garden until he went out of sight. The funny thing is the electric fences were removed months ago but seem to have made a lasting impression on this fellow.

[Bigmallly]

I wonder if the polythene holds some kind of static electricity which the Badger sensed.

[Knight of Albion]

That's good news that the electric fence did the trick.

There you are, where there is a will there is a way! No need to hurt and kill and man and beast can co-exist peacefully.