1. Research on fox repellent
and foxes’ behaviour
in urban environments

2. WHY DO WE HAVE FOXES
IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS?
WHAT DO FOXES EAT (DIET)?
At the beginning of the 1950s, the rabbit population decreased due to
myxomatosis (a decease which kills rabbits). This forces the foxes to
move to the cities or outer skirts of the cities. As the cities grew larger,
parts of the countryside immediately became surrounded in the urban
areas. Which enclosed and foxes (and other animals) living there. That
is how foxes became closer to humans.
Foxes are omnivorous, i.e. they will eat anything. Their diet depends
on the food available in the area where they largest component of their
diet is scavenged items such as meat, bones, bread and bird food.
Wild mammals, birds and invertebrates are also common.
‘Invertebrates’ is a category that includes earthworms and insects,
such as beetles, cutworms (moth larvae) and adult craneflies (daddylong-legs).

3. HOW LONG CAN URBAN FOXES LIVE?
PROBLEM WITH FOXES?
In captivity foxes can live up to fifteen years but wild foxes live very
short lives, on average about two years. In London, when local authorities were still culling foxes, the average life expectancy was just
fourteen months. In Bristol, before mange, life expectancy was slightly
longer, on average eighteen months.
In cities that are mange-free, the commonest cause of death for urban
foxes is being hit by a car. For instance, in Bristol each year before the
spread of mange, some 60% of foxes that died were killed by cars.
Comparable figures for Copenhagen and Illinois were 89% and 47%
respectively.
Mange - type of a disease that effects dog’s skin could also be found
in plants, birds and reptiles
Foxes can be a nuisance to gardeners and allotment owners because
of fouling, digging or damaging garden plants.
Moreover, in autumn and winter, the main dispersal and breeding seasons, foxes can be heard screaming and barking and thus disturbing
people’s sleep or prompting dogs to bark.

4. PROBLEM WITH FOXES?
PROBLEM WITH FOXES?
Foxes kill very few pets, and very few rifle dustbins. In Bristol, where
5480 households were surveyed, only 2.7% reported that foxes frequently rifled their dustbins, 16.4% occasionally and 80.9% never.
With the introduction of wheelie bins, this low level of nuisance has
disappeared.
A four-week-old baby boy was attacked by a fox in his home in south
London.
BBC’s John Andrew said: “The mother was at home and heard this
awful scream, went next door where the baby was, found it had been
dragged from the cot onto the floor and the baby’s hand was in the
jaws of the fox.
“She was obviously in a terrible panic and did what she could to get
the fox off, including kicking it. Eventually it did let go but the baby
was found with quite serious injuries.”

5. WHY DO FOXES VISIT GARDENS?
There are a few common factors to why foxes go to, and behave the
way they do in other people’s gardens:
- If you use compost with fish or animal bones you are most likely to
be having foxes come over and dig near your plants.
- If your garden is full of life, as in insets and invertebrates have made
it their home then the foxes would be paying a visit to eat them. They
would also leave animal and fish bones so over time it would produce
maggots, which are one of the most eaten thing in the urban environment by foxes.

6. FOX MANAGMENT:
Lethal fox control has been attempted in the past by local authorities
in England and Wales without success. Exemplary is the case of London where shooting and trapping of foxes was carried out first by the
Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (now DEFRA) and then by
the London Boroughs from the 1940s to the 1970s, and in some Boroughs even into the early 1980s.
Lethal control was not effective: a dead animal leaves an empty territory and is quickly replaced by another fox regardless of the number
of foxes killed. Furthermore, lethal control is expensive. The costs associated with catching and killing a fox generally far outweigh the low
level of nuisance caused by foxes so that most councils have stopped
lethal fox control.
Both prevention and non-lethal methods of control are more effective
and cheaper, and an increasing number of council are applying them.
FOX MANAGMENT:
However, foxes cause little serious nuisance in towns and most
problems are easily solved by using commercially available
repellents. There are a few simple measures to take to avoid
problems:
- Keep poultry and pets securely housed
- Tidy up rubbish and bramble patches
- Put all you rubbish in the bin, not by the side or, if this is not
possible,
- Put your rubbish out in the morning and not the night before the
rubbish is about the be collected.
- Use commercially available deterrents to stop foxes leaving
droppings in your garden
- Make sure there are no entrances underneath your house/
sheds

7. FOX MANAGMENT:
FOX MANAGMENT:
Foxes are legally classified as vermin and as such are on the DEFRA
vermin list. Therefore it is legal to kill a fox as long as it does not interfear with any other law in the UK. Alternatively you can call pest
control and they could take care of the problem for you, but due to the
past experience by the local councils it has not proven to be efficient.
You can only shoot a fox as long as it does not interfere with any other
UK law against shooting. It is illegal to use an air rifle to shoot foxes.
You can only trap the fox in a cage as using other traps are considered as animal cruelty. The only humane way of killing them after trapping them would be to inject a lethal substance, gassing or shooting
from a distance. Trapping a fox and releasing it in the country side it
considers poor welfare practice. As foxes are territorial and due to the
change of environment and lack of experience, because they have
lived in an urban environment as the are use to scrounging and not
hunting could kill them.
Following are the two ways of killing foxes:
- You can kill a fox by shooting.
- You can kill a fox by trapping it in a cage and killing it humanly.
Letting your dog loose on the fox is not considered a crime but if more
then one dog attacks or chases the fox is considered a crime as the
laws in the UK prohibit fox hunting.

8. FOX MANAGMENT:
FOX MANAGMENT:
There are other more friendlier ways of taking measurements which
could help you take care of the problem.
There are other more friendlier ways of taking measurements which
could help you take care of the problem.
Urinating in and around your garden premises would ward off foxes as
foxes are territorial and the smell of the urine would make them believe
that this is someone else’s territory. Or some bigger animal has take
over their territory. Make sure that its a man’s Urine. Alternatively you
could go to your local Zoo and ask for lion or tiger urine.
Planting chillies, garlic, onion or any other pungent smelling plant or
vegetables will also repel foxes as these odour makes their mouth and
throat swell up and give them an internal rash. Chillies contain capsaicin which gives the chillies their heat and this substance is what
causes this effect on foxes.

9. FOX MANAGMENT:
Hanging CDs or having bright lights in your garden also repells foxes
and they are octernal and tend to olny come out at night. The bight
lights and the reflection form the CDs will spook the foxes and keep
them out of your garden.