Foxes and Badgers in a Scottish Garden: What Actually Works, and What's Actually Legal

If your lawn looks rotavated overnight, work out whether a fox or a badger did it before you buy a deterrent, because the two are treated differently. It can be impossible to keep foxes out of a garden, and they have no special protection beyond the ban on cruelty. Badgers and their setts are protected by law in Scotland, and interfering with a sett, even recklessly, is an offence. Remove whatever draws them in, protect what matters with fencing, and take advice before touching a sett.

Who has been in the garden

Both animals come for food. Badger diet is usually about 80% earthworms, and badgers and foxes both rip up lawns in autumn to spring to reach chafer grubs feeding on the roots. A fox may also dig up new plants where bonemeal, dried blood or chicken pellet manure has been used, because it smells the food.

Badger setts can be mistaken for fox and rabbit burrows: a badger entrance is oval and wider than tall, the tunnels are usually around 30cm across against about 15cm for rabbits, and the soil heap at the entrance is larger and holds stones, sometimes clay balls and bedding of dry grass, bracken or leaves. Fresh soil at the entrance means a sett is in current use, but an apparently unused sett can still be protected, so do not assume it is disused. Badgers can share setts with foxes and rabbits. Check with NatureScot before any work within a few metres of one. A single neat cone of soil with no hole is more likely a molehill than a badger or fox. Both animals can visit the same lawn on different nights, so identify the damage before choosing a fix.

What works

Foxes

Standard netting or fencing is unlikely to stop a fox, because foxes scramble over or dig under it. A fence that can deter foxes needs to be a secure barrier at least 2m high, ideally with a 30cm overhang at the top and buried at least 45cm into the ground, and flexible trelliswork on top discourages climbing (Wandsworth Council pest control advice, 2007). That fence does little against badgers, and the badger fence below does little against foxes, so if you have both you need both. Proprietary repellents need frequent application to keep working and in some cases appear to be ignored. Human hair, chilli and predator urine are widely repeated but unproven, and animals get used to them; wood preservative, disinfectant and human urine are illegal to use as repellents (Wandsworth). Relocating urban foxes is not recommended, because other foxes quickly take over the vacated territory. What helps:

• Fill in holes promptly before they deepen, otherwise a den may be established.
• Seal bins and composters securely to stop access to scraps, keep meat out of the compost heap, do not leave pet food or food for other wildlife out overnight, and put bin bags out only on collection day.
• Check the gaps under sheds and decking: if a den is a problem, weld mesh dug down into the ground around the building stops foxes returning (Wandsworth).
• A motion-activated sprinkler or light can startle a fox for a while, but they usually get used to it within a season or so, so move it every couple of weeks.
• Protect fruit and vegetables with fences or solid weld mesh with holes at least 4cm wide, not flexible netting, which can tangle wildlife.
• Keep rabbits and other pets in a secure enclosure at night, with a solid roof and floor, weld mesh rather than chicken wire and a secure lock.
• Check any den is empty before working near it. Cover part of the entrance with loose soil or sticks that still let foxes come and go: if they have not moved after a few days, it is likely empty. If it is not empty, wait until the cubs leave in late summer.

Fox cubs are born in late March to April, in a den that may be under an outbuilding, and emerge after about four weeks. Activity around a den rises considerably, particularly in early summer when there may be up to five cubs, and the cubs stay with their parents until mid to late summer.

Avoid mothballs: UK government product safety reports describe their naphthalene as a banned, carcinogenic substance, with products seized and destroyed. It is also against the law to use as a deterrent any substance that has not been approved for that use (RSPCA).

Badgers

You can exclude badgers from a garden with metal mesh fencing buried at least 50cm deep, but only after checking there is no sett in the garden and that the area is not an important commuting route, such as the only connection to greenspace further afield. If badgers are digging for chafer grubs they are stubborn and follow the same routes every night, going round, over, under or through obstacles. The only treatment available to gardeners is a nematode biocontrol watered into the turf in late summer to early autumn, which works best on the younger larvae. Scottish soil cools sooner, so the early end of that window is probably safer. Lawn damage is best repaired in spring, when badgers and foxes have generally lost interest in the grubs. If fruit or vegetables are being affected, put a fence around them.

A hole 13cm by 13cm lets a hedgehog through a fence and is too small for nearly all pets. If you fence with fine weld mesh, leave a hedgehog gap at ground level.

The law

The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 applies in England, Wales and Scotland. It is an offence to wilfully kill, injure or take a badger, or to possess a dead badger or anything derived from one. It is also an offence to damage or destroy a sett, obstruct an entrance, cause a dog to enter it, or disturb a badger in it, intending to or being reckless as to whether the action would. In Scotland it is also an offence to knowingly cause or permit these acts, and the penalty on summary conviction is up to 12 months' imprisonment or a fine of up to £40,000, or both, with higher penalties on indictment.

Scottish SPCA's advice on a sett in your garden is: you don't get rid of it. Seek advice from a local badger expert or Badger Trust, and discourage badgers by removing or fencing off whatever is attracting them, such as fruit and vegetables. For an injured or distressed badger, call the Scottish SPCA. Where interference cannot be avoided, such as building work near a sett, you need a licence from NatureScot, which issues them for surveys and research, development, land management and to prevent serious damage. Licences for works near setts are not usually granted from 1 December to 30 June, when badgers are most sensitive to disturbance.

Foxes have no protected status, so you can fence them out or make the garden unwelcoming. But the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 makes it an offence to inflict unnecessary suffering on a wild mammal, including a fox, by acts such as beating, stabbing, burning, crushing or drowning, and poisoning a fox is illegal (RSPCA). Do not use glue traps on any animal: since 1 July 2026 it has been a criminal offence in Scotland to use, supply or possess one, with penalties of up to £40,000 or 12 months in prison.

Common questions

Sources