Foxes Attacking my Netted Cabbages... Need Advice Please

[Geoff H]

Cause the same pigeons sit on the roof of the house across the road and they fly round in circles above the pigeon loft which is in the back garden of that house. He has a big flock of them and does quite well in the races with them. Probably cause they can't wait to get back for my cabbages etc.
Does that make them racing pigeons then?
All I know is they eat a lot of cabbages and can get under the netting.

[Geoff H]

[Deb P]

Digging away on the plot today, sat down for a rest, and a large fox wandered up the path and started eating a windfall pear....didn't know they would eat fruit! It looked right at me than wandered into my shed.......I went after it in case it decided to wee in there (potentialy very smelly), and it had jumped up onto the bit of worktop I use as a potting bench and was having a root around in the peas I had saved the seed of! It scarpered as soon as it saw me, with a very dirty look.... ::) ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

That might make them racing pigeons, but there are other sorts people keep. You may be losing crops to ferals or woodpigeons as well.

[TonyD]

to add to the urine comments. i worked on a farm in Canada which grew mainly cauliflower. they had a major problem with wild life eating their crop, mostly deer. their answer to this was to set pails in the soil around their fields filled with rags. all the workers were told to use these pails to pee in. no more problems from wild life

[TonyD]

more thoughts on this problem. early this morning i went  and threw out bread for the birds by now 9.30 am normally the garden would be full of birds. this morning none. i just went out to feed the black daleks and noticed the strong smell of Creacoat. two days ago i had painted the boards that i am going to put around my new veg patch with creacoat and left to dry. we had a little rain this morning which may have made the smell stronger. i wonder if this is why the birds are not here? if so creacoat may be a good alterative for urine pots.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I don't think pigeons have much sense of smell, but they're very wary. If you've been moving things around that alone is likely to put them off for a couple of days.

It's worth remembering if you're having major problems with them, particularly in the growing season when they're not so hungry. Last summer I stopped them attacking my peas by draping netting over my wigwams. I couldn't make it pigeon-proof, but it put them off long enough to switch to another food source.