Foxes are adaptable, quiet and bold, and a garden with shelter, water and an easy meal is exactly what they are looking for. Once a fox finds a reliable food source, it will keep coming back. The aim is not to drive wildlife out of the neighbourhood, but to make your patch the least interesting one on the street.

Why foxes choose your garden

Foxes are opportunists. In towns and suburbs they live at high densities, and a single animal may pass through half a dozen gardens in a night. Four things draw them in: food, shelter, water and a quiet route in and out.

Look at what your garden offers. Bird seed scattered under a feeder, a compost heap with kitchen scraps, bin bags stacked by the back door, windfall apples in October, a bowl of cat food left on the patio. Any of those is a reliable meal. Add a gap beneath the shed and you have somewhere dry to rest or raise cubs.

Less reward, less reason to visit. Most fox problems shrink when you change the garden rather than the fox.

Start with a ten-minute dusk walk-round

Before you buy anything, walk the garden at dusk, ideally after rain when scents linger. Read it as a fox would, and note:

• Gaps under gates, fences, sheds and decking
• Bin lids that lift with a nudge
• Food left out, spilled or composting
• Hanging feeders positioned over bare soil
• Scraped patches, lifted turf or holes in borders

The first two or three fixes are usually obvious and free. Droppings left on paths, walls and planters are scent-marking, not evidence of a den. Neat holes with freshly dug soil are more likely to be grubbing or food caching than a residence.

Take the food away

The single most effective change is to stop feeding foxes by accident.

1. Bins. Use a locking lid, or thread a bungee strap through the handle and over the top. Wheelie bins left out the night before collection are a common source of trouble.
2. Pet food. Feed cats and dogs indoors and never leave bowls out overnight.
3. Bird feeders. Use a tray or no-mess seed mix, and sweep up spillage. Seed on the lawn also attracts rodents, which attract foxes.
4. Compost. Keep cooked food, meat, dairy and bones out of open heaps, or switch to a sealed bin.
5. Fruit and barbecues. Clear windfalls, net soft fruit, scrape the grill and bag leftovers properly.

Stop the digging

Foxes dig for three reasons: to reach worms and lawn grubs, especially in late summer and autumn; to cache food; and to burn off energy, particularly young cubs at play. If your lawn is being torn up, ask which one applies before spending money.

Grub damage tends to appear as turf rolled back like carpet, often in dry spells. Improving the lawn's condition and dealing with the grubs, with advice from a garden centre or lawn professional, removes the attraction.

• Tensioned netting over seed beds and vegetable patches
• Prickly barriers: holly or pyracantha clippings, or plastic spike mats, along fence lines
• Mesh laid just below the surface of newly turfed or reseeded areas until it knits
• Close-fitting gravel boards or mesh skirts along the base of fences and gates

Deterrents have a place, but none works forever. Ultrasonic units, motion-activated lights and sprinklers, and scent products all rely on novelty, so move them every week or two. Commercial repellents need rotating, and home remedies such as citrus peel or chilli need reapplying after rain. A quick spray from a hose when you spot a fox is humane, legal and surprisingly effective in the short term.

Dens, cubs and shed clearances

Vixens den in spring to raise cubs, usually from March into summer, and a sheltered gap beneath a shed, decking or outbuilding is ideal. If cubs are present, sealing the hole is the worst thing you can do, because you risk trapping animals inside.

The simplest approach is patience. The family usually moves on once the cubs are mobile, often within a few weeks. Watch for comings and goings, and only block the entrance once you are confident it is empty. Block it gradually, starting with soft material, so nothing can be trapped behind it.

If you cannot wait, gentle disturbance near the entrance, repeated over several days, usually persuades a vixen to move her cubs. If you are unsure, ask a wildlife charity or your local council before acting.

One important exception: a large hole with a big fan of excavated soil outside and tunnels running underneath is likely to be a badger sett. Setts are legally protected, so stop and take advice before going anywhere near it.

What the law allows

Foxes are not a protected species in the UK in the way badgers or bats are, and you are entitled to deter them from your own garden. What you cannot

Photo: zoosnow / Pexels