Streetlife

A bin with a lid is all you need. We have an excellent collection service in Tooting and supply our own lidded bins if we don't want the foxes etc speading food waste over front garden and footpath. You need to educate your neighbour if they put out unbinned food waste overnight. The responsibility is ours.

We did have a fox problem with them constantly ripping open the bin bags that we could not fit into dustbin when full . My mum in law told me that they hate the smell of disinfectant, so of I went to poundland brought lots of the cheap stuff and every time I put a bag out that could not fit in the bin sprinkled some on it ... yes it works they never touch the bags !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Apparently they like to keep to a set walking route at night in search of food and once they work out that your property will not feed them ( Ie cant rip your bin bags apart as they hate disinfectant smell ) after awhile they will eventually change their route taking your house of it. This definately happened with our property,

Hi with reference to the foxes they are getting worse. Woke up to a family of them playing in my back garden this morning to the horror of my cat. There is also an article in this Evenings Evening Standard on page 29 - a fox got into a house in Stockwell and bit a sleep adult.

Anyone keen to excerpt pressure on the Council to do something about the fox population in the area ?

Council will do nothing ,its going to be down to you and your neighbours to do all you can to deter them .Try and see where they are getting in, block it, if they are jumping over your fence try trellis (wickes) as high as you can go if they get through the trellis put garden wire netting over the trellis (wickes). I had serious problems with foxes, 4 doors up from me had a den in the back garden .This worked for me and have been fox free for over a year now .Unlike my neighbours who did nothing : ]

I just saw 2 new comments had been added to this thread so thought I'd check them out - and discovered that my earlier comment (in response to someone else's recommendation for a water pistol) had been removed, as well as the original water-pistol-related post - and perhaps more - are we being censored by Streetlife???

Fear not Tracey! The water pistol comments were on a conversation about pigeons - here.

blush Oh no - I got the pests confused!!! a huge apology Nina!!!

No problem Tracey. I did chuckle at the thought that we'd censor water squirting but leave perimeter peeing!

Hey guys and girls, my first posting on streetlife and I get to christen it by writing about foxes. I do love the little rogues, ever since I moved to Balham/Tooting last summer our garden has played host to two different families. Some days we'd wake up and see 5-6 baby cubs leaping around and having a ball. With the vixen watching adoringly from a safe distance.

One of them (last summer) we nicknamed little Bert, and he'd sometimes creep through the open bedroom door. After scaring him off and ensuring we kept the door closed they haven't tried to come in.

However last weekend has caused me to rethink my approach to the little blighters... I don't mind seeing them in the garden if no harm is done to our plants, shed etc, but upon opening my shed door I was met by some beady little eyes. A bit of scrabbling later and the fox had fled from the shed (via a back passage, they'd pulled up some wooden boards to gain access).

Suffice to say the shed was a mess, I deduced that they'd been using it as shelter from the bad weather for a few weeks - there was fox poo and wee EVERYWHERE. And that's not an exaggeration...the shed was covered with flies, our boxes that we'd hoarded there for safe keeping were ruined.

I was absolutely furious.

I've cleaned the shed out the best I could, scrapped the boxes, tried to wash down the lawnmower that too was covered in poo.Sprayed all sorts of fly killer and air freshener to restore it back to former glory. I've also tried to fill in the gaps underneath the shed with bricks, wood and old rags..I might try the wee thing too, but I hope blocking it up will be enough to deter them.

Sigh. Matt

Maybe you could build them a custom-made little den, then? I remember seeing a 'Springwatch' where a family's chickens were bedevilled by a local Pine Marten. Instead of thinking the worst, the family started putting out an egg every night and the Pine Marten took that and left the chickens alone...

I just cant believe that this subject matter has appeared now, talk about appropriate timing! I've just had an experience with a fox strolling into my living room on Wednesday night, I nearly had a heart attack! I chased it out but on its way it peed all over my dining room carpet, (although not sure if it was fear or terrotorial marking!), I wasnt best pleased. I've noticed over the last year a number of foxes appearing in my garden and have sometimes found one sleeping there and in fact on one occassion there were two sleeping on top of my shed!! I dont particularly want to hurt them but I'm not, under any circumstances having them come into the house. A friend suggested the sensor as it had worked for him but there seems to be mixed reviews on here so I might have to invite a number of male friends round to battle for the territory!!!

try and find out where they are getting in and make it more difficult, foxes follow regular routes and mark them by urinating and defecating .Getting Male friends to pee over your garden will just make your garden smell of human pee instead of fox.Foxes have become very accustomed to human sound and smells.Your going to have to put a bit more effort in than that. Think of them as Burglars the harder you make it to get in the less likely you are going to see them.

Short of building a fortress round the top of my fences, I'm not sure what more I can do Mark. All the fences have concrete bases so there not getting in that way. There is a driveway at the back of our houses for which we have no access to and maybe thats where their lair is, I dont know, all I do know is, that when I chase them off, they immediately go over the back fence, which is already 6ft high! Also, I have to be honest and say, I cant smell any unpleasant odour so dont know whether they're 'marking their territory' or not but as others on here have indicated that a couple of weeks of male urine in strategic places seems to work, I'm gonna give it a go.....well I'm personally not obviously but I will get someone to do it! I will try other things as well but sometimes the simplest things.........!

Have subsequently found this website link text that has a lot of testimonials from people in south London so might give that a go. Lots of interesting and reasonably cheap products to help deter them getting in, in the first place!!

I put trellis on top of my fences fortress style...making it near imposable for them to get in ..worked for me,have not had a fox in for over a year and they look really good with Clematis growing over them. : ]

Urination and anything human/biological deters them. If weeing on your fence does not appeal human hair works even better, stops the slugs too!!! You can get some from your hairdressers, they may think your are mad but hey it works!! Good luck!