Topic: Badgers

[Tee Gee]

Once again our plots have been the victim of the Badgers despite the recently built fence built to keep them out.

They have been on every plot all 26 0f them and took out every ones Sweet corn.

They are so indiscriminate in so far they only eat the largest corn but even then they only eat half of it then start on another.

Add to that because corn are grown in blocks the Badgers just push there way through the plants and more or less skittle all of the stems, meaning that even the small uneaten corn is useless because the stems have been broken and they will not grow any further!

I have harvested what remained but I am not expecting much from them, perhaps a few baby corn at best. And to think on Friday when I picked two I thought how good they were and that I was in for a bumper crop.

[pumkinlover]

Commiserations teegee my only consolation is that if it was me I prefer a wildlife issue to human vandalism.
Still sorry for your disappointment

[Tee Gee]

I prefer a wildlife issue to human vandalism.

Thanks plus I agree with you on the vandalism issue!

But on saying that I have a gut feeling that there has been some 'human' influence as well.

Let me explain:

I have been on the plots nearly thirty years and it is only in the last 2-3 years that we have been troubled with Badgers.

Add to that our plots are on the edge of a public park which the local council has let deteriorate so some will people have tried to rectify this situation.

They call themselves " Friends of the Park" (FOTP)and I would have to agree they have really improved the park....But!... My cynical mind thinks this way..... up until their arrival we have never had problems with with Badgers on the site and my thoughts are on the lines of.......did they disturb a Badger's set when carrying out their improvements and the Badgers found pastures new.........i.e Our Plots.

We had consultations with them and the council and the outcome was the erection of the "Badger Fence" which I think was a reaction by the council to do "their bit"  to pacify the FOTP's and the Plot holders and seek redemption for neglecting the park for so long.

But it hasn't worked......they only put the fence up one side of our plots (the Park side) meaning all the Badgers have to do is  trot to the end of the fence and come in that way.

I am not too concerned about the issue simply because I am more and more thinking about giving up allotmenteering over the next year or so. But that is not my point.

 My point is I have had thirty happy years on the plots and I would like to think that future generations will get the same, but I know what I would think if I were a 'new applicant'  and someone was to mention " The badger Issue"

Funny old World isn't it! and it is a true saying:

" Please some of the People some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time"!

Which raises another thought! are the Badgers better protected than we humans are?

OK time to get off my soapbox!

[small]

I've posted about this before, but some years ago now. After a badger took out many of my root crops, OH put a single strand of electric fence at about 9" around the perimeter of my plot, and bingo, no more trouble. That's probably not feasible on an allotment site, though.
Sorry to hear you are thinking of giving up the allotment, TeeGee, I love reading your posts and tapping into your expertise.

[laurieuk]

All our plots are troubled by badgers all the time, when we first moved to the village we were told "do not try and grow tulips, carrots as the badgers will always clear them. I tried sweetcorn and put up  fencing etc. we came back from holiday to find a wonderful crop, the next morning the whole lot had gone. They wait until there is a crop of nice corn before moving in, so far this year they have ate my broad beans , strawberries. raspberries, dug potatoes to get to the worms ruining the crop as they go. I often think of quitting but I need the exercise having had  heart surgery and being 86 years old.

[ACE]

I noticed one of my plot neighbours had his corn badgered. Not having much in the way of sturdy fencing I left it to chance. A couple of nights later they had the corn on the other neighbours plot, leaving mine alone. Then I realised the solar mole scarer was bleeping away and I wondered if it was deterring them. It does bugger all for the moles unless I move it daily but it does sound like the pulse of a leccy fence so the badgers might be wary.

[DrJohnH]

I never saw badgers as a kid in my village in the UK, but saw hedgehogs all the time- now, no hedgehogs, but lots of badgers- even trotting down the lanes at night- bold as brass.  I wonder if the hedgehogs are badger food- or simply out competed for food?

[small]

We've used a nightcam to see what goes on just round about the house, and we have badgers, hedgehogs and foxes all trotting about, not at the same time though, perhaps our hedgehogs run faster....

[Silverleaf]

I never saw badgers as a kid in my village in the UK, but saw hedgehogs all the time- now, no hedgehogs, but lots of badgers- even trotting down the lanes at night- bold as brass.  I wonder if the hedgehogs are badger food- or simply out competed for food?

Yes badgers will eat hedgehogs - with their heavy fur and massive claws they aren't bothered about the prickles so the hedgehogs don't really have much defence against them. Foxes eat hedgehogs too.

Hedgehog numbers are down mostly because of habitat loss and fragmentation - a hedgehog will run several miles a night looking for food and they struggle with modern tidy gardens full of gravel, with their insect food decimated by pesticides and their way blocked by solid fences.

They also aren't terribly bright and get into all sorts of trouble with ponds they can't climb out of, grates and pipes that look tempting but turn out to be inescapable, and litter like yogurt pots or cans or those bits of plastic that hold four-packs of beer together that they get stuck on themselves, not to mention attacks from pet dogs (and the occasional human).

When I used to rescue them I mostly dealt with youngsters who weren't fat enough to survive if they hibernated. I kept them inside over the winter so they stayed awake and ate huge amounts of cat food and walked incredible amounts of stinky poo all over their cages every night, and released in the spring when they were big and had a good chance of survival out in the wild. I've spent countless hours syringe-feeding sick youngsters who refused to eat, and let me tell you it's not easy trying to restrain a wriggly lump covered in sharp prickles while you try to squirt liquidised puppy food into its mouth!

I haven't seen one in years now. Such a shame, because they are lovely even if they are messy and stinky and severely lacking in the brains department. ;)

[squeezyjohn]

Sometimes wildlife eats my produce and I just put it down to having to co-exist with nature.  Other times the animals seem to be merely vandalising just like a human, this year rabbits got in to all our plots in July and systematically ate an inch from the bottom of every runner bean and climbing french bean plant they could get to leaving the plants above and all the developing beans to wither on the canes.  It's a similar thing with badgers bulldozing a bed of not-quite-ready corn to eat a couple of early ripe ears - you just want to kill them.

Fortunately the field behind my plot has been planted with maize ... so my sweetcorn escaped lightly except from a couple of nibbles from local mice and voles ... safety in numbers!