How to get rid of badgers..advice sought

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Last year we lost alot of vegetables & fruit to badgers.Do you have them in the States ??Over here in the Uk they are protected so you cannot kill or trap them.Ours are burrowing badgers ..no not a sub species just a description of their modus operandi.

Does anyone know of anything that badgers dislike apart from a dose of buckshot..which of course is illegal.I did wonder whether something like Zoo Doo might help.

Any ideas ??

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), March 11, 2000

Answers

Here in the southwestern United States we have much trouble with burrowing prairie dogs and packrats, as well as racoons and many rabbits. For new plants, we line the planting hole with chicken wire, and if the plants are young and delicious to the critters, we cover them with the same until the plants become established. Hope this helps.

-- Aunt Bee (SheriffAndy@Mayberry.com), March 11, 2000.

Chris, have you looked at "The Brock Pages", and particularly Living With Badgers ?

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), March 12, 2000.

Chris, Something you might try, Moth balls, or Moth ball crystals,spread around the garden several feet from the fence ,then around the inside right against the fence itself....

-- Furie (furieart@webworkz.com), March 12, 2000.

This isn't an answer to your question, but I have a feeling that a U.K. badger is way different from a North American badger. The North American kind is large (about a foot long) flattish, and incredibly strong. There was a case where they put one in a cage which had steel plates on the cage floor, and the animal ripped those plates right up.

(Zoological point: our badger, along with the skunk and the wolverine, is a large member of the weasel family.)

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), March 13, 2000.


Another thought is pepper-dried black and crushed red peper. Mix it into the soil on both sides of the fence and spread it out on the topsoil too. If the badgers come while you are there, try macing them ...[Tear gas] with pepper spray. simple yet effective.

The mothballs would work except for the fact they can melt in the rain and leave a residue- I doubt you want it in your plants. I use mothballs in sheds and under the house for rodent and pest control.

-- Satanta (EventHoriz@n.com), March 14, 2000.



I've been away for most of this week so a rather belated thank you, everyone, for your all helpful replies.We are willing to try anything !

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), March 18, 2000.

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