Thread: Foxes, what should I do

Shotgun

Originally Posted by Arron

Do natl parks or local councils deal with this?

You'd have to think that Parks would have a vested interest in getting rid of it. I'd start there - they are probably better motivated too.

Foxes are territorial so removing one will just allow another one to replace it and you will be on a hiding to nowhere.
Short of a major eradication campaign in the NP they will always be around.

Look up ways of deterring foxes.
Strategies include males peeing at the edges of your block.
What about a male dog - take it for a walk every morning and night around the block and get it to pee around the block.

Wire mesh fence around the perimeter of the block will keep it out.

Originally Posted by cava

Wire mesh fence around the perimeter of the block will keep it out.

Depends what's on the other side. As a kid I saw the holes they dug under a mesh fence around our large (400 m^2) chook yard. One night we lost about a dozen chooks and my uncle borrowed two large kangaroo dogs for about a month and we didn't hear or see anything during that time. The dogs were mangy looking things and scared the bejesus out of us kids and mum didn't like them at all, besides they owner needed them as guard dogs at his farm. As soon as the dogs went the foxes came back and got a couple more chooks before my uncle fired off few rounds and they took off. In the end dad and uncle sank the chook mesh about a foot under the ground and that stoped them. There were a few attempts at digging holes but they seemed to give up pretty easily.

Otherwise I agree its a simple enough solution. They also liked the rubbish bins and the garden/wood shed with no door, I think their could smell the ever-present mice that were attracted by the chook food and made heaps of nests in there.

12 gauge, .177 remington, .22 hornet, .22 magnum. etc. etc.

I'd bump 5 or 6 of them every year - our 20 acre property backs onto National Park. Anyone in a similar situation will confirm that National Parks are about the worst neighbour you can have. Headshot with the rifle does the trick...... Much more effective than all the city types on neighbouring properties, who shouldn't be allowed near 1080 let alone putting it out as fox bait.

Reminds me of one spectacularly brilliant (although some would say flukey...ahem) kill a few years ago. Went out with the rifle and spotlight in a howling gale, 70km/h winds, not expecting to see anything out and about. Lo and behold, there was Mr Fox, out at extreme range (foxes are well educated in the effective range of every calibre of rifle....). Nothing to lose, thinks I - aim off about 4" over his head for the long range, and at a spot about 12" upwind of his head. I figured I'd either hit his head for a humane kill, or miss altogether (much more likely). He went down like a sack of spuds - never knew what hit him. I'm not saying I could ever do it again though........

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

I'd bump 5 or 6 of them every year . . . .

So only 7,499,994 or 5 to go ?

I assume the numbers are about the same from year to year?

A good fox is a dead fox. They are a pest here. Killed all our chooks, just chopped their heads off and went for the next one. Trapping them is very difficult. They can smell you have touched the trap. I did not manage to get one in the trap with a dead chicken in it. But they are not that clever. To prevent them digging to get into a chook pen, you just need to extend the fence horizontally underground outwards from the pen.

And make fence very tall, yes I know Foxes can't clime fences, only when you are not looking

Originally Posted by China

And make fence very tall, yes I know Foxes can't clime fences, only when you are not looking

Tall, but not tight, with barbed wire at the top.

One of our idiot neighbours had a deluxe chook pen built when he moved down from Sydney to "the country". Fence just went down to ground level, quite tall, no roof....

The first lot of chooks lasted about 2 days; fox dug in, killed the lot, took one with him, came back on following nights to cart the other dead birds off and eat them. Mr Fox didn't have time to get the second (smaller) lot of chooks - wedge-tailed eagle came in the top of the pen, goodbye chooks...... Hands up anyone who isn't surprised?

Between the high-powered electric boundary fence, and the rifle, any introduced species that stick their noses onto our place get dealt with. Unfortunately, we are increasingly surrounded by clueless Sydneysiders in their multi-million dollar "weekenders" who think that

(a) Foxes are cute and fluffy - surely they wouldn't hurt anything?
(b) "We love watching all the bunny rabbits playing in the front paddock" (actual statement)
(c) Isn't that purple flowering stuff pretty? (Paterson's Curse)
(d) What is that big patch of yellow stuff over there? (Fireweed)
(e) Oh no, my cat Fluffy/Tiddles would never kill anything....he's just a little sweetie

If their widdle puddy cat comes out at night hunting native wildlife on our property, it had better be able to run real fast when it gets the spotlight on it.

Time for us to move somewhere more rural and away from the Sydney overflow methinks.

I got a fox last year by shooting a small rabbit as bait, and leaving it in an enticing position just down from our garden. Checked several times during the evening with torch; rabbit still there, no foxes to be seen. On the last occasion I popped out for a final look with gun before going to bed, and there was Mr Fox, caught in the spotlight, having literally just picked the rabbit up in his mouth. He bolted......I followed him across paddocks and through a couple of fences (mercifully the energiser was turned off....OUCH ), and finally dropped him just as he was trying to get back through the front fence. Walked over, and removed my rabbit from his mouth - he never even got time to chew it. Tragically, the same trick the following night resulted in loss of rabbit - I guess I just got lucky.

Easiest to shoot them while they are young and don't know what a spotlight is - they tend to sit still staring into the light. However, if you take a shot and miss you've stuffed it - they won't sit so still the next time you get a bead on them.

One small problem

Bushmiller's 20 acres is large enough to shoot on, Arron's 1100 sq.m is not.

But I agree, foxes are a pest that should be eradicated