How do you get rid of badgers?

[rovermorris999]

The Spruce goose said:

why do you want them controlled, just out of interest. Yes the population have increased since the 90's but you do understand they are part of the countryside ecosystem,

Much like magpies and raptors. It depends if you want a healthy population of other birds, particularly ground-nesting ones and hedgehogs too. Just remember there is little 'natural' about the countryside. The high- end predators have been removed by us and traditional game-keeping is now rare and frowned on where it does survive so some species thrive to the detriment of others, badgers and magpies amongst them.

[Siko]

Thread resurrection time.

Love Badgers but there is a massive sett about half a mile from me and they have now dug up (and ruined ) the grass verges into my house and worst of all, my lovely lawn Apart from peeing on the boundary after eating Asparagus, any other tips to keeping them out? We are fenced all the way around but I have a feeling they have dug underneath a tree or something like that as no obvious points of entry....

[TimmyMallett]

For God's sake, whatever you do, don't use mashed potato.

[ewanjp]

[pquinn]

Siko said:

We are fenced all the way around but I have a feeling they have dug underneath a tree or something like that as no obvious points of entry....

Assume you've checked the fences are intact? In my experience badgers will go straight through any fence that gets in their way.

I ended up cladding the bottom couple of feet in metal as I got tired of fixing the holes, especially as even if you left them they'd just make new ones anyway.

If they've dug a hole somewhere that'll be pretty obvious as they aren't small (had that too)

[Siko]

We've got some big holes under a tree I can't get too easily, but I suspect they've come through a boundary wall/fence that I can't easily access but doesn't look too secure (it's mainly hedging) with a few smallish methods of entry. I quite like him tbh but not the mess they make, guess I'll be rolling out the chicken wire at the weekend.....