Topic: Fox has almost broken my spirit today - long sorry

[Crystalmoon]

 :'( I have just cried my eyes out at my allotment today....I am on the verge of giving in & giving it up :(
I have severe arthritis in my knees so to enable me to continue at my lotty I have been adding as many raised beds as I can this year. A fox has been using them to bury his kills & also to dig for worms in ::)
I have lost 2 beds of parsnips, 2 large beds of leeks, a salad bed & now my new strawberry bed.
It doesnt matter if i cover them in net,fleece, wire framed cloches the fox just rips through it all. Large areas of my lotty have been covered in black membrane to cut down on weeding but also to plant squash plants through - the fox has shredded the black membrane. I have had a dead owl, rats & headless pigeons to deal with sofar this week. I feel exhausted & heart broken.
I cant even have raised beds in my garden cos there are so many local cats they use them as litter trays again despite what ever I cover the beds with.
I think what upset me the most today was another plot holder telling me that the latest bed to be destroyed had happened last night, so my strawberry plants had been baking in the sun all day strewn across my allotment. Today is the first day in weeks that I didnt go down there in the early morning & left it til tonight. Ive been going every morning because of the fox. It all feels like too much right now.
I just dont know what to do?
I do know the fox is probably desparate for soft soil to dig in cos of the baked hard clay everywhere other than my raised beds....sigh ::)
Sorry for being so moany I just had to get it off my chest & tell people who understand. When my neighbour saw I had been crying as I was coming in from the lotty she asked what was wrong & after telling her her response was how much easier it would be for me to order my food from a supermarket online....some people just dont get it :-\   
   

[grannyjanny]

Sorry to hear about your allotment problems. I'm sure someone with more experience will be able to advise you on the best way of dealing with foxes & no people just don't understand the joy an allotment can bring.

[Borlotti]

Sorry to hear that, we have foxes at our allotments but they don't seem to do much damage, but then we have a lot of uncultivated plots.  The pigeons eat most things if not netted.  Saw a baby fox sitting outside my house last night and he looked so thin, but best not to encourage it, but he did look very tame and sweet.  If you have lots of foxes and they are a nuisance I suppose you should call pest control and they will kill them.

[Crystalmoon]

Thanks grannyjanny for taking the time to read my moany post & for understanding how I must be feeling.

Hi Borlotti, the fox in question is a magnificent specimen, really large, beautiful coat, well fed. He really is a wonderful looking animal (Ive seen him a few times....yep I was even mad enough to go to the lotty at 2am last week & caught him in the act....had to be sure it wasnt just vandalism). I wouldnt like him to be killed. I know the dry weather is making it very hard for them as they do like to bury their kills. I think I get alot of his attention not just because of my raised beds with soft soil but also cos I grow organically so there is alot of wildlife on my plot (lots of toads etc). We dont have any uncultivated plots as we are a tiny site with only 15 plots. 

[Flighty]

Although I like foxes I really do sympathise when they cause damage and problems like this.  
Can I suggest that you try to find out if there's anything you can do to deter them, and this website has lots of useful advice and further links
http://www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/wildlife/inthewild/foxes

[macmac]

Blimey and we moan about the odd pigeon,It must be awful and the supermarket comment ::)
I hope someone will offer you suggestions about discouraging this "vandal" but a lovely thing I took from your post was despite your understandable frustration you still appreciated this beautiful animal and his efforts for his own survival.Bless you and I hope you find a solution that suits you both x

[Columbus]

Hi Crystalmoon, Hi all  :(

Are you using bonemeal or blood, fish and bone, or getting plants from someone who does?
The foxes here will uproot plants if I leave any BF&B too near the surface but will usually ignore it
If I put it down deep enough. I guess they can smell it.

Thanks for the comment about the hard soil being a problem for them, it explains the lower leg of muntjac that was left on the surface of the woodchip mulch between my raspberries this week. Its compacted dry mulch and quite hard unlike the fresher and watered mulch where they have dug out plants.

As you already have the frames for raised beds in place could you add sides or covers in metal mesh or glass? Chicken wire would be a lowest cost possibility. Its probably a case of outlasting or retraining one fox who has "discovered" your plot and making it less attractive.
I just remembered Renardine which has been mentioned here before but its not legal apparently,
http://www.nomorepests.co.uk/Foxes.html

Best of luck, stick at it, Col

[Hector]

Really sorry to hear this :( I wonder if you asked on your local Freecycle if some kind builder/construction site person could give you some of those really heavy duty mesh panels? Our friend got some to construct a bomb proof chicken run? You could maybe get friends and all construct latching bed covers or a closed off area?
Really hope it gets sorted for you :)

[gwynnethmary]

So sorry to hear about your fox problem, but as someone has already said, glad you're not really blaming the fox!  We had a small fox problem last year -he /she kept using our nice soft asparagus bed as a toilet(am glad to say we didn't find any other offerings!)  We "marked" the bed with male human urine, and we didn't see him again.  I'm sure your problem might not be solved as easily as that, but anything's worth a try when you're desperate!  Hope it rains soon so that the fox can find somewhere more socially acceptable to desopit his larder, and that you and he can cohabit more amicably!

[Ragdoll Lady]

Hello Crystalmoon I am so sorry to hear that you have had such a rotten time with the fox distroying your beds on the allotment. I totally inderstand why you are so fed up and upset. Just to plant up those beds in the first place with arthritis is no mean feet in itself. When you are in constant pain everythiing is a struggle. The idea with the mesh panels seems a good one as does a high quality mesh cover on a frame covering the veggies. Problem is that it is money all the time. Male urine spread round the plot will work as a detterent. You can also use crushed moth balls (foxes hate camphor) or tea bags soaked in jeys fluid. Also you can fill feet of old tights with human hair and tie them round your plants. You may end up with a site looking like the scene of a hammer house of horror voodoo scene but hey if it works it will be worth it.
Hope you have a better day tomorrow. As for that neighbour shes just a silly old bat and has never grown anything in her life.

Take care
Lindax

[Urlybird]

Kill it, after all, if the powers that are hadn't outlawed hunting the mangy beggars, they'd probably be a lot fewer than there is at present

Urly dons his flak jacket, and tin hat,

and ducks down behind the parapet :o

[cornykev]

Sorry to hear about your fox troubles, human urine on your paths were mentioned here last year.   :(
Urly the on slaught will start any minute.   :-X

[plainleaf]

get a decent fence  bad smells do not work with canines like fox's they just roll
nasty smell as a woman would with perfume.

[goodlife]

Ohh..that's awful..  :o Try wee..it doesn't matter if its male of female..just do your "thing" in bucket and slosh it round..then you have 'marked' you plot and and hopefully it will tell 'old foxy' to keep way..or at leas be aware that he is visiting on somebody's patch of land..if it smell 'somebody' else presence it may not want to bury its stash away there again.. ;)
Please don't give up..what is really upsetting this year..may not happen again at all..
We've got resident foxes and some years they've bought some dog toys on to my plot to play with..sometimes they have played/shewed few plant pots..but every year is different. Now we have 'quiet' year..I've seen them about but they barely pay a visit.
You could even ask some dog owners to come with they dogs to the lottie..just so the dogs can lift their legs and add to the different markings.. ;) That will confuse them!

[Crystalmoon]

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your suggesstions. I dont drive so getting anything from freecycle is a problem but will join the online site for my area & see if I can find someone happy to deliver, maybe for a small fee.
I do use blood, fish & bonemeal when I plant out my squash plants but strangely, sofar ,the fox has ignored them.
I use mostly seaweed fertiliser or my own nettle & comfrey teas.
I think I will have to give the human urine 'marking my plot' a go as its the quickest & cheapest method.
Then I will get some mothballs when I next got to the shops.
I have tried to deter the fox from burying his kills in my beds by unearthing the food & placing it near my compost heaps, why he wont use them is a mystery to me? I really wouldnt care if he used the compost heap.
I have already checked all the high metal fencing around our site & there are no holes or signs of the fox digging under it. There is a drainage ditch that has a large pipe in it that is ofcourse completely dry at the moment so I think he must be coming through the pipe from the fields nearby. I will ask some of the men on the site if they could help me cover the hole when I next see them. I wont be able to do it myself as i cant get down into the ditch let alone get back out of it.
I know if I wasnt in so much pain with the arthritis i wouldnt be so upset about the damage....it just takes me so long to achieve anything at my lotty these days that its heartbreaking to see weeks of hard work destroyed overnight.
I will carry on for the rest of the year & think about it over the winter. My consultant told me years ago to give up the allotment...I totally ignored him but now Im beginning to see his point of view. To be honest with the fox & drought the lotty has been taking up so much of my time this year, my house is a mess, Im behind with all the other jobs like decorating that badly needs doing, etc. Maybe I do need to stop working so hard at the lotty....but I just cant imagine life without it, it used to give me such joy & peace to be there....today I am dreading going there incase there is yet more damage :'(

[BarriedaleNick]

Kill it, after all, if the powers that are hadn't outlawed hunting the mangy beggars, they'd probably be a lot fewer than there is at present

Urly dons his flak jacket, and tin hat,

and ducks down behind the parapet :o

Unfortunately hunting foxes never did anything to keep numbers down - especially in South East London!!!

[Kleftiwallah]

'Crystalmoon,  ignore Hector!  the last thing you want is a solid fence.  The fox can climb over it.  The only way to diswade this fox is to have a two section fence, the bottom half sturdy, but the top 1 or 2 foot needs to be as wobbly as possible without falling down under its own weight.

The fox doesn't like fences where it cannot get a good foothold or grip.  So surround a plot with a fence 18" of strong mesh then an extra 2 foot of wobbly stuff.   I hope this does the trick and you see him off!   Cheers,   Tony/

[louise stella]

I have all my shopping delivered by a man in a van who can!
BUT - what you can't get delivered is the sense of escape from the real world that the allotment gives you!
I hope you find a solution!
x

[Crystalmoon]

Hi everyone, well I have started my mission to deter the Fox by netting almost everything including paths between raised beds, I have made sure some parts of the net are raised & some not so it isnt a uniform pattern. All beds now have canes sticking out of them with plastic bottles whirring around in the wind to make noise. Im going to put up strings of cds in the hope that the mirror effect wont be to the fox's liking.
Ive asked some of the men on the plot if they would please consider 'marking' my plot with urine - got some funny looks but maybe one of them will oblige. There isnt a toilet at our small plot so it would be abit difficult for me to go somewehere discreet to collect a bucket of my own,lol. Im going to take down some spare mirror tiles to place by the beds the fox seems to like the most. I have no idea if any of this will help but worth a try. I will be contacting the fox project to ask their advice on detterring the fox too. Im also on the look out for mothballs.
All the 'madness' of the strings/nets etc at my plot will make it abit more difficult for me to move around it too so no more going down the lotty til dark for me!

[goodlife]

 ;D..all those dangling and moving things propably just make fox feel like circus has arrived in town..fun time!.. :-X
I would have liked to see those chaps faces when you asked to 'mark' around.. ;D ;D..they might not believe in first time you asked..so it is worth repeating the plea..just to assure them that you 'mean the business'... ;D ;D