Serious badgers in garden problem

[Pancho]

I understand that the law means I have to be really nice to badgers. But they are starting to really piss me off. They've moved on from occasional visits to nightly ploughing of the lawn. It looks like it's been turned over by a 5 furrow job.

Two questions: is there anything one can do? will they stick to the lawn or will they move onto the veg patch (ie the important bit of the garden?

[Jaded]

It is a full moon tonight.

So tonight is the night you go out and "pee your boundary".

You'll then have 4 weeks before you have to do it again.

[Andrij]

Try scaring them off with some Conservative campaign literature? 

[Wowbagger]

Thank your lucky stars they haven't done this. Taken on the Joddrell Bank ride in George Osborne's constituency -  a new breed of super-badger intent on culling humans because there are too many of them.

[andygates]

Try asking the Badger Trust or the RSPCA.  They might have something more scientific than moon pee.

http://www.badger.org.uk/content/home.asp

[Kim]

Thank your lucky stars they haven't done this. Taken on the Joddrell Bank ride in George Osborne's constituency -  a new breed of super-badger intent on culling humans because there are too many of them.

Did they knock you off your bike again?

[Wowbagger]

No. The bike was put there for scale. I wanted Jan to stop to take the photo with me in it for comparison - that mound was at least six feet tall - but sadly this was on a hill and she didn't want to stop as otherwise she would have had to have walked up.

[Hot Flatus]

: is there anything one can do?

Yes.

Get off their land!!

[Exit Stage Left]

A friend has a farm close to a motorway junction, and people think they're the first person to release nuisance urban Badgers there. But Badgers live in social groups, so the lone dumped animals generally mooch about a bit before getting run down on the nearby trunk road.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Would it be better if the badgers were frivolous?

[Mrs Pingu]

And in the conservatory?

[clarion]

I'm surprised they haven't moved onto the veg patch already.  Although their grubbing activity can often be for pests such as leatherjackets and grubs, it's more often for worms.  And, being omnivores, they do like eating fruit, tubers and corms.

[clifftaylor]

And in the conservatory?

The conservatory is where they'll go next, when they've got the garden looking just right.

[darkpoint]

I remember being told that they are looking for worms and other such things,  but they really like peanuts.   So you can scatter some over a less important bit of ground and they will dig up that instead.   Then you can move them by changing the location of the peanuts, and reducing what you put out.. 

Careful mind,  don't drop any as they will pull up paving slabs to get at them..

[bikenrrd]

You stand no chance against the mighty badger!

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/search/3822046.Badgers_cause_main_road_closure/

[Jaded]

You stand no chance against the mighty badger!

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/search/3822046.Badgers_cause_main_road_closure/

I wondered what had happened to Swiss Tony.

[clarion]

Reporting for a local paper is like making love to a beautiful woman...

[Wowbagger]

Reporting for a local paper is like making love to a beautiful woman...

Well, I did one of those two things for 16 years and I beg to differ.

I recall reading about occasional road closures in Gloucestershire, where the lanes are narrow and the badgers monstrous. I could well imagine a good bit of meles-related excavation blocking roads.

It's interesting that bikenrrd refers to a badger's sett being moved. I understand that, when the new sewage works in Southend was built, a chap from the local badger group helped them out by constructing a replica using cement. It was sett in concrete.

[Cudzoziemiec]

You need to hire a team of endurance riders on wheels with aero spokes.

[Exit Stage Left]

The Welsh for Badger is Moch Daear, you see a lot of signs warning of them on the roads. It means Earth Pig, the same as Aardvark does in Afrikaans, there's no connection other than the burrowing. Pigs would tear up your lawn in much the same way.
You can get the pronunciation from this video, there's quite a lot of references to Moch Daear on the net.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newyddion/17296189

[Kim]

Moch Daear, you see a lot of signs warning of them on the roads.

Are they related to the Arafs? 

[Exit Stage Left]

Moch Daear, you see a lot of signs warning of them on the roads.

Are they related to the Arafs? 

You must think I'm slow or something.
I like to listen to Welsh, I was at a Hedging comp in Flintshire a while ago, it's great to be in a foreign country 70 miles from home. I even saw a Milltir and a Filltir mileage sign. The plurals and case changes sound a bit complicated.

[rogerzilla]

You stand no chance against the mighty badger!

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/search/3822046.Badgers_cause_main_road_closure/

Hopefully this doesn't also affect the hilariously-named Cumnor Rise Road.

[Pancho]

I've been researching badger problems. The prognosis is not good. Looks like I'm stuck with 'em unless I fancy surrounding the garden with anti-tank defences and deeply buried civil engineering works.

Basically, they are so totally protected by law that I should probably be taking them out mugs of hot chocolate every evening.

Maybe I should start a dairy herd.

[Kim]

Hm...  how do you milk a badger?