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We've just moved house and all the neighbours have been quite proudly telling us about the friendly local badgers that run up and down at the end of the gardens. Apparently they stopped when a fence went in between two of the gardens, but while tidying ours up we've found what I'm pretty sure is a latrine pit*
Other than a stake-out, how could I find out if we do indeed have badgers? (There are no mushrooms or snakes yet)
*poo hole
Watch and wait for an hour around and just after dusk- mini stake out.
May help to put some steak out?
Sugarpuffs are the one, put some out and if they disappear you either have badgers or the Honey Monster lives close by.
My aunty runs a small rescue ctr for badgers, hedgehogs etc. I spent many a weekend there when young with wildlife running around the garden/kitchen.
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put out some poison - that'll leave you plenty of time to see what's been there
Follow the trail of stans fluid from the patio?
Bigyinn.... Nice 🙂
The gift that just keeps on giving.....
Seriously though, badgers tend to have a regular route and timetable (usually dictated by sundown etc). They often used to appear at mums an houror two after sunset. Putting scraps out for them may encourage them. I remember sitting about 6ft away from several chomping away on leftovers. They are quite noisy eaters!
But I don't know where your mum lives
oh, you meant badger? like real live animal one? sorry I thought you meant something else.
and I was so looking forward to an ex gf thread.
Ask Brian May to come over. They love a bit of Brian, do badgers
Put some cows in your garden. If they contract bovine tuberculosis, then you have badgers; if not, then at least you have some cows.
If you find your lawn starts to resemble the Somme as the stripy bastards dig it up looking for grubs and things - you have badgers.
My newly planted grass did have a few holes. And a whacking great hole in the net covering it.
You sure it's not the neighbours poo hole?
They've been eating a lot of slugs and berries if so.
They do like a bit of ham.
And Battenburg.
I've seen them snaffling it up.
Pmsl @ timmys, Three Fish and ti_pin_man 😆
timmys - Member
If you find your lawn starts to resemble the Somme as the stripy bastards dig it up looking for grubs and things - you have badgers.
Or wild boar.
We have badgers. They are not regular time keepers though, so waiting up for them may be a waste of time.
Clues - lots of digging,sometimes big holes often just pulling up the grass. I normally replace the divots and the grass recovers. Also the poo is to mark out their territory. If you study the poo it will look like it has chewed up berries in it.
Badgers love peanuts (peanut butter).
As mentioned - peanuts
with some coloured kiddies beads mixed in, allows you to track which sett each latrine pit is related to.
with some coloured kiddies beads mixed in, allows you to track which sett each latrine pit is related to.
Tie one end of a long piece of cotton to the sett, and the other to the bead. Then you'll have not only a line to follow between the sett and the latrine, but also a neatly threaded badger for your convenience.
Camera traps are good. Lidl were doing a cheap version (~£65 ) a few weeks back. Otherwise, if you can see any mammal paths into the garden, they may have left some hairs on the fence. Badger hair is triangular and will not roll in your fingers. Most other animals hair is rollable. Badger poo is quite distinctive if you know what your looking/smelling/tasting* for...
*delete as required...
on lightning deal at the moment
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As mentioned - peanutswith some coloured kiddies
?
Interesting differences about timekeeping.
We've plenty of badger sets and 5-6 years ago one family would run past the front of our house, turn the corner and run past our kitchen every night like clockwork at dusk. It even got to the stage where people would come to our house and sit in the lounge to wait for them. "I don't believe you, it's never going to... **** me, there's a badger!"
Then they stopped just like that. They like their routes and keep to them unless something spooks them, when they change their route.
They do dig for worms quite a bit, but unless it's in the middle of your prize lawn, not usually a problem. *
As mentioned by yetidave they've also got unique fur, so look for it that's been caught on a fence or bush... I found a clump at the top of my daughters slide one day. I love to think they were on the slide while we slept...
* Usually. Apart from one night where they absolutely decimated a 20ft * 30ft section, and must have been driving a jcb.
Is this badger scat? It's been deposited over two nights in a 4" deep hole
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Anyone?
Looks like it.
Nice and dark like badger or fox poo but looks too much for a fox and more like badger quantity. Any signs of berry seeds?
Yeah some husks in it. Blackberry I think
you can taste the blackberry.
We get badgers and foxes, dig up the lawn in the winter.
either that or a guiness drinking tramp has been "passing" by...
The photo looks a lot like badger poo. Fox poo is more like a small twisted sausage, with bits of fur/bones sticking out. To deter them from your garden, fencing is the best option, but expensive. It needs to be sunk underground (to prevent digging) and not climbable by a badger (at least 4 feet high). If they are coming in to feed, this is normally either to eat earthworms or insect pests from your garden, windfall fruit, bird nuts or cat/dog food. They will also be encouraged to come into the area if a neighbour is feeding hedgehogs, foxes or badgers. Sometimes so-called distraction feeding works to deter badgers - this is where you feed them outside your garden; so they don't then come in to your garden hungry. Unless you want to fall out with your neighbours, I would not advise dumping 500g of plain peanuts into their gardens though! Damage can be seasonal; so it may be worse at certain times of year. Thanks. Simon Flory - Badger Specialist
Do you know, I'm not too concerned. They seem to be staying up the top end of the garden and only mucking about up there. As long as they don't get aggressive or cause too much damage they can have the run of it, plus they explore everyone's gardens by the sounds of things - not just ours