Wild animals are being spotted more and more frequently in your own garden. The badger also likes to visit us. The following article explains what attracts it and how it can be gently expelled.
In a nutshell
- healthy badgers are usually only active at night
- a badger burrow can take on large proportions and destroy beds
- gently expel with smells of various spices
- Cover compost as odor will draw badgers into the garden
- prefer gentle methods to the death of animals to protect nature
Table of contents
- recognize badgers
- identify animal feces
- Gentle methods of expulsion
- fill in the badger's den
- Keep out of garden
- Questions about the badger
recognize badgers
Whether it is really a badger in the garden or another wild animal such as a racoon or a Fox up to mischief, the damage caused can be determined quickly:
- churned up earth in many places in the beds and on the meadow
- Holes are about five to four inches deep
- rubbish lying around from your own rubbish bin
- here was a badger foraging for food
- scratch marks on trees
- Badgers sharpen their claws
- due to the large claws, tracks are very distinctive and easy to recognize
- easy determination of the feces left behind
Stone or tiled floors in particular can become problematic during the winter if they cool down too much. Place the pot on a styrofoam board or wooden board to avoid sharp temperature fluctuations.
identify animal feces
Badgers are actually very clean animals that do not defecate either in their burrow or directly in the garden. The droppings are similar to those of raccoons, dogs or foxes. However, the badgers never defecate on a smooth surface or in the middle of a meadow, as is the case with dogs or foxes:
- Animals use so-called excrement latrines
- small, flat elongated hole
- Latrines are scratched by badgers
- near trees and bushes
- also next to the entrances to their own badger building
- other marten species also scratch latrines
- Badger droppings, however, contain visible marks
- Fruit stones, seeds or small animal remains
- Shape is sausage-shaped and cylindrical
Since the feces are dangerous for us humans, you should only examine them with gloves and a mask so as not to inhale the vapors. Because the faeces contains bacteria, fungi or parasites and should therefore always end up well sealed in the residual waste.
Gentle methods of expulsion
Even though it's legal to hunt badgers between August and October, there's always a better way to scare the animals out of your yard. Because the animals only come out of their burrow to look for food and don't want to get too close to us humans.
This is how life in the garden can be made as unpleasant as possible for the badger:
- hang up a loud sounding wind chime
- also make a lot of noise and noise in the garden
- Hang CD in trees for reflections
- Always cover compost
- Close garbage cans in the garden well
- Garden should smell strongly of spices
- Garlic, curry, chilli and pepper
- directly in front of the entrances to the badger's den
- Also place dog or cat droppings directly in front of the entrances
- Animal hair should also help
If you don't have a pet and can't get hair or feces from friends, you can try your own urine. Because the badgers don't like this smell either and feel disturbed.
fill in the badger's den
If the entrances to a badger's den in the garden were recognized, the first reaction here might be to fill them up. But this is not a good measure to drive away the badger. Because he can quickly dig himself up elsewhere and thus expand his burrow underground.
- Drive away badgers first
- usually a whole family lives in the building
- fill in the building only when all the animals have moved out
- fill the entire structure with earth
- otherwise the terrain may sag
A badger will always prefer a quiet garden. Do you have children playing on the meadow in the garden or do you like to sit on yours with several people for a long time in the evening terrace, then there is a high probability that no badgers will move into your garden because it is simply too loud for them.
Keep out of garden
Keeping a badger, and later its entire family, out of your own garden is not that easy. Because the animals have many reasons why they settle in the garden area. They also prefer environments with solid soil, areas rich in hedges and deciduous or mixed forests.
If the garden is in such an area, then there are precautionary measures to avoid attracting the animals:
- Minimize food sources as much as possible
- do not leave animal feed in the garden area
- no food leftovers on the compost
- Pick up fallen fruit early
- Closing holes in the fence
- When keeping chickens, protect the stable and free range well
- Badgers are attracted to chicken feed
- and from the eggs
Of course, there are also food sources for the badger over which you have no control. Because the animals eat insects and so it can happen that a badger has a whole wasp nest eaten, which was in a corner of the garden and he was thus attracted.
Questions about the badger
The badger belongs to the marten genus and is nocturnal. He is predominantly vegetarian and enjoys eating fruit, berries, mushrooms, seeds and roots. Therefore, it can be quite dangerous for the garden. But also snails, mice, earthworms and insects are on its menu from time to time, which in turn is good for us humans. If the badger is healthy, then he lives withdrawn and does not seek contact or confrontation with us humans and is therefore completely harmless as an animal if he does not feel attacked.
Since he is only out and about at night, he sleeps in his self-dug burrow during the day. For this reason, it is usually not possible to see the shy animal at all. When everyone is asleep and he feels alone, the badger comes out of his den to look for food.
The badger burrow can actually take on very large proportions. With their long claws on their front paws, the animals can dig and dig quickly and deeply. In this way, they create an underground structure for themselves and their families that can go up to five meters deep. There are also various entrances and a widely ramified system of various tunnels and other caves. A badger can undermine an entire garden in a matter of months.
A marten deterrent drives animals away with flashes of light and ultrasound and reacts via a motion detector. Therefore not only badgers or martens are driven out of the garden. The motion detector also reacts to cats or other small animals and drives them away as well.
Live in an area with rocky or sandy soils, near water, or in an environment with high groundwater, then you don't have to worry about badgers in the garden, as the animals do not usually hang out in such environments. Because the animals have no opportunity to create their badger burrow here.