Winter means harsh weather and limited food for wildlife in the area. This harsh season often pushes them towards human spaces where food and warmth are usually available in abundance, especially when the holiday season is being celebrated. One of the animals that Durham citizens need to be on the lookout for is foxes. If you have a garden, you’ll probably need wildlife control services to help you keep them out this winter.

Foxes keep smaller garden destroyers like squirrels away, but they also do considerable damage themselves. The foxes that you are likely to see in your garden are red foxes. These foxes are pretty popular in Canada and have caused problems for many of Durham’s gardeners.

As the festive season approaches, foxes will try to get closer to your home if they suspect that you’ve got food available for them. If you store your leftovers outside, this might attract them. Also if smaller animals like squirrels and raccoons feed on your leftovers, foxes may be attracted to your space since they feed on these animals.

Upon their arrival, they will discover your garden and add it to their list of targets. Their actions will include digging and scratching to find the rodents in the garden. They’ll also run around in the garden smashing delicate plants as they go along. They love to lay in flower beds, and this damages the plants. They’ll also create quite a mess by spreading garbage from your bin all over your yard. As if that wasn’t bad enough, these foxes have a habit of defecating in the garden leaving a stinky mess.

In addition to damaging your garden, foxes are dangerous to have around. Like other wildlife animals, their presence is accompanied by diseases that can be passed on to domestic pets.

Signs Your Property Has a Fox Problem

A few signs can help you to realize that foxes have been visiting your garden. One of the most popular ones is holes in the garden created by their digging action. The stench of fox droppings is another indicator. You may also see spots in the garden where the plants are lying flat- the result of the fox laying on them.

Keeping Foxes Away

It is best that you avoid having a fox problem in the first place. The steps you can take include trimming overgrown garden areas, removing fruits as soon as they are ready to be harvested and removing water sources from the garden.

Do not toss leftovers into your garden. Ideally, your biodegradable garbage can make good composting material for your garden. But this also attracts wildlife animals. Instead of tossing edibles in the garden places them in a secure composting bin. This bin has to be kept in a location that is inaccessible to wildlife. Keep it covered so that the smell is less likely to escape and tempt wildlife. The best solution though is to carry all biodegradable waste to the appropriate disposal site away from your home.

You can scare foxes away by introducing light (through a motion sensor garden light) or sound (through an alarm system). A good quality fence that has been installed by professionals will also help to keep foxes out. Use hardwire and ensure that it is high enough to prevent the foxes from jumping over it.

If all your efforts aren’t enough to keep foxes away, you can turn to Durham’s wildlife control experts at Skedaddle. Our years of experience in handling Durham’s foxes makes Skedaddle the ideal team to help you keep them away this Christmas.