Foxes began living in urban environments in the 1950s as rabbits decreased due to disease and cities grew, enclosing countryside. Foxes are omnivorous and eat mostly scavenged food like meat, bones and bread. In cities without mange, the main cause of death for urban foxes is being hit by cars. Wild foxes typically live 2 years on average but can live up to 15 years in captivity. Foxes are sometimes a nuisance by fouling gardens or disturbing sleep with noise, but rarely damage bins or kill pets. Non-lethal control methods are more effective than lethal methods at addressing fox problems.

1. The
Urban Menace
WHY DO WE HAVE FOXES IN URBAN ENVIOURNMENTS?
At the beginning of the 1950s, the rabbit population decreased due to myxomatosis (a decease which kills
rabbits) foxes moved to the cities or outer skirts of the cities and as cities grew larger, parts of the countryside immediately surrounding the urban areas became enclosed and foxes (and other animals) living there
came into closer contact with humans.

2. WHAT DO FOXES EAT (DIET)?
Foxes are omnivorous, i.e. they will eat anything. Their
diet depends on the food available in the area where
they live.largest component of their diet is scavenged
items such as meat, bones, bread and bird food. Wild
mammals, birds and invertebrates are also common.
In cities that are mange-free, the commonest cause of
death for urban foxes is being hit by a car. 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.
HOW LONG CAN URBAN FOXES
LIVE?
Is a category that includes earthworms and
insects, such as beetles, cutworms (moth larvae)
and adult craneflies (daddy-long-legs).
Mange:
Type of a desese that effects dog’s skin could also
be found in plnats, 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.
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.
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.
Invertebrates:
PROBLEMS WITH FOXES?
Tune in
On BBC radio 4
At 4:00pm for a
disscussion about weather to
use pest controle on foxes or
not.
Earlier this year...
A 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.”

3. WHY DO FOXES VISIT
OUR
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
mist 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
and leave animal and fish
bones so over time it would
produce maggots, which are
one of the most eaten thing
in the urban enviournmet by
foxes.
creatures of habit and have
territories, these territories
are secured by the vixen and
at this time of the year will be
defended. A vixen will ensure
she has several safe earths
for the birth of her cubs and
if disturbed from one will
move to another. The foxes
feel safe and welcome under
your neighbours shed and
that is why she uses it as her
home.
Cubs are typically born between January and April.
The litter will range from on
average four to five cubs. It
is unlikely that more than
“this is one of the main issues
with urban foxes....humans
feeding them.”
Foxes get used to their surrounding and recognise people and noises very quickly.
This can make them very
cheeky. Cubs have far less reserve than their parents and
will come right up to people,
cats and dogs unaware of
the dangers this often causes
them. By the time a fox has
reached the end of their first
year they have learnt to respect all of them and should
keep a safe distance away.
That distance in the countryside is greater as they are just
like humans, the need for
personal space varies from
countryside to city. They are
one of these cubs will survive to adult hood. A vixen
will protect her cubs and it
is this time of the year that
we see foxes chase cats away
if they get to close. No matter how close you can get to
a fox once caught they will
bite. They are not normally
aggressive unless protecting
cubs or trapped.
Foxes have to eat every day
and an adult fox will have
learnt where and when it
can eat. They follow set
paths and in urban areas often have several people that
feed them. We recently had
to catch a fox that had a severe wound on his neck and
over the week of trapping
we had five calls from neighbours reporting his injury.
Each neighbour was unaware the other was feeding
and this is one of the main
issues with urban foxes....humans feeding them.
Often one neighbour will
feed the fox and another will
dislike it. Their natural drive
to survive and need for food
sees them form relationships
with humans. Unfortunately
for the fox they cannot always tell at first glance who
they should trust.
Foxes also carry a fungal
infection of the skin called
‘ringworm’. This is carried by
cats, dogs and most commonly for us hedgehogs.
Depending on the species it
can cause a skin infection in
humans, this is easily treated
with a cream and is usually
only transmitted when handling foxes or other infected
mammals. By far the highest
risk of infection from a fox
is from a bite. Like cats, fox
bites need to be taken seriously and medical attention
sought immediately. A number of bacteria are transmitted in fox bites, in particular,
Streptococcus species. Fox
urine can transmit the disease Leptospirosis which
causes liver failure in hu-
for more information go to
Go to gardenersworld.com/magazine

4. managment
The fox
few more
friendly
approches
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.
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
Urenating in and around
your garden premesis would
ward off foxes as foxes are
terratorial and the smell of
the urin would make them
belive that this is someone
els’s tarratory. You can also
ask your local zoo to supples for lion, tiger or uren of
any other terratoral animal.
In the pas that as proven to
wored. All of these are home
remadies of getting rid of
these pesckey creatures.It is
not that they are harmful to
us, in certain cases they are
but, its what they do to your
garden. Follow these tips
and tricks to repell this animals rather that trying to get
rid of them.
Lethal control was not effective as 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.
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 problem.
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
Planting Chillies
Laws behind fox managment
them.
Letting your dog loose
on the fox is not considerd a crime but if more then
one dog attackes or chses
the fox is cinsidered a
crime as the laws in
the UK prohibit
Foxs are legally classified as
vermin and as such are on
the DEFRA vermin list. There
fore it is legal to kill a fox as
long as it does not interfear
with any other law in the UK.
Akternativly you can all pest
controle and they could take
care of the proble for you,
but due to the past experience by the local councils it
has not proven to be efficant.
There are the two ways of
killing foxes. You can kill a fox
by shooting.you can kill a fox
by traping it in a cage and
killing it humanly.
You can only shoot a fox as
long as it does not interfear 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 animal cruelty. the only humane way
of killing them after traping
them would be to inject a
lethel substance, gassing or
shooting from a distance.
trapping a fox and relasing
it in the countrey side it considerd poor welfare practice.
As foxes are terratoral and
due to the change of enviournemt and lack of experience because they have lived
in an urban enviournemt as
the are use to scrounging
and not hunting could kill
planting chillies, garlic, onion
or any other pungent smeiing plant or vegetables will
also repell foexes as these
oders makes their mouth
and throte swell up and give
them an internal rash. chilles contain capsaicin which
gives the chillis their heat
and this substance is what
causes this effect on foxes.
Chilli plants will thrive on
a sunny window sill or in a
greenhouse. They have a
long cropping season, so you
could still be harvesting fresh
chillies in December. You will
need just two small pots to
sow your chilli seeds; use a
good quality seed compost
and keep them in a bright
place to ensure they germinate.
Do it: January - May
At its best: Jul - Aug
Takes just: 10 mins to
sow the seeds