How to deter badgers?

I have welded steel mesh under and up the fences to prevent them getting into my garden.

If they manage to dig and occupy a sett on your land, you will find that they are protected by law.

You will, then, not be able to disturb them (as they wreck your garden) without committing a criminal offence!

There isn't a sett in my garden but it does seem to be on one of their nocturnal routes.

Nope, you can't. The best you can do is make friends with them.

Mine caused havoc and I phoned up Badger Society telling them they had bashed a hole in my shed and bitten the head off a fox (yes really

Lovely chap said 'oh, they are just having a laugh, they are obviously teenage badgers...'...

I stopped trying to grow carrots or parsnips. I'm reliably informed they don't like potatoes though. But they do eat earthworms which is kind of sad for an organic gardener who spent so much time putting organic matter into the soil..sigh...

They are also one of the biggest killers of hedgehogs I believe and, if you have a hedgehog house in your garden they may turn it over and scoop out the poor hedgehog.

Red in tooth and claw!

The folk way is to persuade a man, preferably still with testosterone circulating, to either wee in a bucket which you then distribute around the area or garden or discretely wee direct!! Sorry if this offends!
Other than that as someone else says, befriend them, leave some areas wild, they love peanut butter on toast, you could try leaving similar somewhere away from the area you're trying to protect.
We have badgers who dig holes in the lawn. They're looking for some kind of grub. I don't see why they shouldn't feed themselves and their family and they don't dig up my vegetables.
You might try speaking to the Badger Trust, they're very helpful.

Another vote for the male urine trick, apparently it clarifies your boundaries...! Good luck. :-)

Having had some experience with badgers digging up a lawn, they are looking for chafer grubs and one way to stop them is to get the lawn treated with nematodes which will stop the chafer grubs and then the badgers. It needs to be done after rain and the prime time is September

A huge great Alsatian dog works wonders!

Be grateful in a few years there will be no badgers as government is culling them

Thanks! I abhor the badger cull, catta5 and often wonder why calves can't be vaccinated for TB if human beings can! Then badgers couldn't catch it from them and spread it back to them. I will keep an eye on the badger situation here as I have no wish to eliminate them. Sadly, there is no human male living here, nor do I have a big dog.

I just showed this thread on a group and someone said their elderly dog was attacked by a badger.
I bet Gardeners' Questiontime on Radio 4 would love to try and help.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Badgers are vermin. We give not a second's thought to destroying rats. But Badgers!
Back in 1971 an Act of Parliament decreed that they become Protected and their numbers have increased dramatically since.
And don't let me start on the effect this has had on the Dairy industry, particularly in the South West where I live. And as someone has pointed out our hedgehog population has been almost decimated by the Badger.
They are not cuddly cute animals, Badgers are vicious creatures with extremely horrendous teeth and carry much disease.
Until that Act of 1971 they were sensibly controlled by farmers. But unfortunately some of the 'lads of the day' loved Badger baiting and the Act was brought in to stop that.
We have lived with the consequences of the bad behaviour of the few ever since.
Culling diseased Badgers is a kindness dear people, have any of you seen a Badger dying of Tuberculosis?

The countryside is not a playground, it is a living, breathing working environment and it would so well for those of you living in urban areas to respect the ways of nature. She will repay you tenfold if you learn to understand her ways. The Badger has no natural predator so culling by humans becomes a necessity.

I'm sure they are a nuisance, but remember how thrilling it was at Center Parcs a few years ago, when we were there with children and one grandchild and became aware of badgers on the patio one evening. Switching the lights off, we surreptitiously observed them for what seemed to be quite some time. The only badgers I'd previously seen were dead ones by the side of the road. I found it a marvellous experience.

Sorry about the digression, commiserations about the holes in your flowerbeds annodomini.

I get both badgers and foxes in my garden, and have never found a way to keep them out. One of them undoubtedly the badger managed to bend the bars of an iron fence to get in, but really they do not trouble me.

I have seen both animals walking up the road - not together! - in early morning so they are obviously quite happy living in an urban environment. I have never found out where they live, but there is a public school with very extensive grounds at the end of my garden and I suspect they have homes there!

The best way for humans to not be bothered by badgers, or any other wild animal for that matter, is to get rid of the humans. The wild animals were here first; we are on their land.

www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/health-welfare/livestock-diseases/bovine-tb/breakthrough-in-bovine-tb-cattle-vaccine

It seems vaccine against TB in cows may be round the next corner.

I think in order to keep badgers out you need a strong fence that they can neither bite through nor dig under.

Badgers seem only to be hunted by bobcats and cougers, so perhaps buying a load of dung from the nearest zoo or animal park that has any of the big cats might work.

As a child I remember hearing that a farmer near Edinburgh protected his crops from deer by spreading lion dung from the zoo round the edges of his fields.

I love my badgers and foxes, put down some peanuts and enjoy their visit

Yes quizqueen it’s human beings who have destroyed the planet not animals. Their natural habitat has been taken away by us so we cannot complain about them coming into our gardens.

You could contact your local Badger Trust for advice for starters. First thing is probably to establish whether it is badgers that are digging up your plants. Trail cams are reasonably priced on Amazon and using one would confirm which animal is to ‘blame.’ Alternatively, in our area, the local Badger Trust will lend a trail cam out for a week, free of charge.

I love using my trail cam anyway, it spots lots of wildlife behaviour and also keeps an eye on the chickens when I suspect fowl behaviour!

Can you make your garden more secure if they’re not welcome?

Agree with the idea of male urine. If you can sprinkle some of that at the point where they access the garden, that will help. The smell of male urine definitely deters them.

I am very opposed to the badger cull which is happening NOW and I have been part of a badger vaccination programme. It looks as though the government is seriously considering vaccination for the future, but for now many thousands more badgers are to be culled. And make no mistake, BOVINE TB as the name implies, is a disease of CATTLE which some badgers have had the misfortune to catch.

Brian May’s ‘Save me Trust’ has lots of useful information on the badger cull. Many people are opposed to it and there are lots of local protest groups.

PS The biggest killer of hedgehogs are cars, the declining hedgerows, farming practices, our desire to have scrupulously tidy gardens so there’s no natural habitat and the use of pesticides/slug pellets.

Just look on YouTube and you will see videos of badgers and hedgehogs eating side by side, at ease with each other.

Yes, badgers will kill hedgehogs if they are desperate for food but it’s not their food of choice. I’d eat a hedgehog too, if I was desperate, but certainly as a last resort.

There are plenty of fields, woods and a riverbank here for all the local badgers and foxes. I wouldn't wish them any harm, but defend my right to exclude them from my garden.

I don't approve of people feeding them as it just encourages them to be near, and trust, humans. That puts them in danger from all the animal haters around.

I have to endorse silvercollie's post, apart from the mens' pee I've never heard of a way to deter these animals.
Please remember badgers are not nice little cuddly things and I don't think you'd be happy with a family of them living in your garden as you would stand a good chance of your small pet dog or cat being eaten or catching TB and passing it on to you and your children.
I'm also fed up to the back teeth of hearing how ignorant, horrible, nasty cruel farmers destroy the countryside (why?), kill off hedgehogs(why?) and sweet baby foxes or any other animal or bird that looks sweet and pretty. Badgers are really vicious animals and do a lot of damage and spread a nasty disease (as, I admit, do deer). They have no natural predators so their numbers do need to be controlled. We control the rat population and grey squirrels but no-one protests. Would you give a rat colony a space under your garden shed if they were protected? The babies are quite cute and play and frolic like all babies. The mother rats are devoted and really 'good' parents just like badgers.
(I will now duck down behind the hay bales, trying not to laugh imagining OH pee-ing his way round our boundary fences to deter the badgers).