Topic: Help! Badgers

[Lady of the Land]

Have just found out we have 4 badgers who have taken up residence by our allotment site. We had some damage to our sweetcorn and this year everyones was eaten and devastated. I also understand they like root veg as well.

They are a protected species, although there has by coincidence been lots on the news re possibly culling them because of risk of TB in cattle.

We have spoken to someone in a badger society from an area nearby as understood they may remove them to a more suitable area, however was told that this is not the norm and once local badger watch are aware of them may be more difficult to solve problem.

Have contacted DEFRA but they refered us back to local council. On looking at list of whom it might be suitable to contact within council there really is not anyone other than parks department which is whom we contact re the allotments. We are reluctant to contact them as do not have any great faith in them and may find we have even more problems resulting from this.


What can we do? Any ideas would be welcome

Thank you

[silly billy]

I used to help the West Surrey Badger Group and from my experience the chances of your allotment society getting the sett moved is almost nil unless they are causing serious damage to the land and by that I mean the soil etc not the plants that you grow. I think you will be looking at having to get some kind of fencing put up around your plots and make sure its buried too.

Last year we lost all our sweetcorn and so did all my neighbours but this year I fenced of an area of my plot where I grew my sweetcorn and so did my neighbour and neither of us suffered any loss. You have to learn to live with them. A badger will roam several miles in a night to find food so even if the sett is miles away they will still visit and eat your sweetcorn. I haven't suffered any loss of root vegetables.

Once someone enquires about having a sett moved we used to be extra vigilant to make sure no one attempts anything they shouldn't.

[Carol]

How about contacting your local member of the Wildlife Trust.  They maybe offer you some advice etc.

[Eristic]

How about taking it in turns to get a sack of throw-away rubbish from a local greengrocer and just feed them and live with them. I've heard rumours that they also eat slugs.

[BAK]

We had a sett for several years (they appear to have moved on - touch wood).

They seemed to have a particular liking for carrots. I would not encourage them, not least because they make such a mess; they can devastate a bed but only come away with a couple of carrots.

Any sort of barrier will help. Although they could easily destroy many of them they appear mostly to wander off in my limited experience in search of easier pickings, eg the next door plot that has no barriers.

[tin can]

If they were relocated you'd probably find that others would find the vacant sett next year.
I'm afraid that adapting to the environment also means adapting to the wildlife as well as climate change.
I understand it's frustrating, but you should be pleased to have them really- ( though it would be better elsewhere of course!!)

[cambourne7]

I spotted on today on the allotment but i think its got trapped in rather than there being a set on the site.

(i hope)

Cambourne7

[ipt8]

They are protected by law.
Do other allotment holders have any views or past history of them. It would pay to know if you have allies or opposition in the allotments.
They have set routes when they forage, and will push through or under most farm stock fencing, or bite through quite thick fencing wire.
You may be best to deter them. Maybe a cat scarer, the sort that sprays water or makes a noise, set off by a pir, like a security light uses. Maybe a scarecrow of some sort, a dog maybe..... just trying to think around the problem. Even some form of wind chimes may put them off your patch, but I have a silly vision of an area of allotments all with different wind chimes....interesting.
Have other allotment holders done anything to deter them perhaps?

[Lady of the Land]

Thank you for all the different and interesting ideas. We have only just found out for sure there is a set by the site. Other allotment holders I have spoken to do not want them on site - not because they do not like badgers but because of the damage they have done so far this summer. We are having a committee meeting soon so I expect we will discuss this further then.

Has any one tried using plastic bottles cut up the side over sweetcorn, or do the badgers still remove the sweetcorn from the plant.

It would be good if they do eat slugs. I thought they liked worms

[star]

I have just got an allotment today YYYIPEEE......and was told there was a badger sett on the allotment site! :(

I love them to bits....and there didnt seem to be any damage to the plots. Lots of people have put barriers up, looks like that helps. So I reckon we shall be doing the same.

Apparantly they are getting fed further away from our site, so it seems they go to where they are getting fed than troubling to forage the plots.....I hope so :-\

[star]

Eeep I was wrong, I went to the lottie this afternoon for an hour, and the organiser (whats her proper title?) was there. She said the badgers had rootled all her onions up :-\ :(

[artichoke]

Badgers (I assume,can't think how else it happened) rootled up all my carefully laid newspaper/cardboard/woodchip paths recently, in search of worms. I've also had lots of broadbean damage on another site, and a neighbour's wonderful sweet corn was pulled over and chewed at overnight. I agree that there's nothing we can do except protect plantswith barriers that just might irritate them enough for them to move on.

[steveuk]

http://www.badgers.org.uk/badgerpages/eurasian-badger-57.html


this site may help. problem is that if TB is in badgers, then concern is for humans, i know its hard one, but hope site may help

[LesH]

     We have trouble with badgers on our site. We asked for Defra to visit the site and give us advice and guidence. They advised us to use eletric fences and brought some of different types with them and demonstated them. Then the Council banned us from using the electric fences. (H & S)