The UK’s Best Fox Deterrents & Repellents

Foxes are a beautiful animal, they look amazing, however they are very much an unwanted garden pest. They chew, dig, poo and just generally ruin your garden, much like the dog you never wanted!

They can cause considerable damage to your garden, destroying your bins, flower beds, hose pipes, and just about anything they can get their little paws on.

Perhaps the worst thing about foxes is that they’re territorial, which means even if you get rid of a single fox you might well have another jump straight in its place looking to take over the previous foxes “patch”, there a bit like their own individual gangs! It isn’t just a question of removing the foxes it’s also about deterring any future ones.

In this post we look at:

• Understanding the fox, what do they love & hate
• When are foxes most active
• What smells do foxes hate?
• What problems do foxes cause
• General tips to deter foxes
• What products can keep foxes out your garden for good
• Tips on how to prevent further fox problems

What Do Foxes Love & Hate?

To understand how to get rid of foxes, you first need to understand what the foxes love and what they hate, so you can implement both. They’re quick, intelligent and survivors, so you have to be smart in trying to get rid & deter them.

A word of warning before we get going. Foxes do have quite bad eyesight, and although it isn’t within their nature, they will attack a human if they feel threatened, so try not and confront them head on if at all possible.

So without further ado, here’s their loves & hates:

Foxes Love:

• Quiet areas – Shouting out your window at every fox might not quite cut it, we’ll go into this later, but there’s a product that makes a sound which can deter foxes
• Darkness – Now you may have already guessed this as there often active at night, but just having a motion sensor light can help fix the fox issue
• Security – Like we mentioned, they spread their scent and are territorial, so they like to ensure that the whole area is secure and safe for them… make it unsafe and unwelcoming

So, what do foxes hate?

• Being surprised or startled
• Light
• Vibrations
• The area being uncomfortable or unsafe

I mean, it’s quite straight forward, what they hate is the opposite of what they love! If you keep reading, we’ll go into depth on a general look on how to stop them coming into your garden, some tips, when they are most active, some of the problems they cause and how to prevent future fox related issues.

When Are Foxes Most Active?

You’ll find there are a few times in particular that you should be on the lookout to see if you have a fox problem, based on the amount of calls and issues here are the times that foxes are most active:

• Their breeding season – which is roughly between December and February, they like the cold
• When the cubs leave the parents, which is roughly Autumn
• They are nocturnal, and peak hours are between dusk and dawn – They typically spend the day time resting

What Smells Do Foxes Hate?

Foxes have an extremely powerful sense of smell, if you want to deter them, this is one of the main things to use against them. There are a lot of DIY ways you can repel foxes from your garden through just smell alone, here are a few smells they hate:

• Chili Peppers
• Garlic
• Capsaicin

Here’s a bit of a DIY method to get rid of them – try boil some garlic and chili pepper with some water, mix it together in a blender or cut it up really fine, put the mixture in a spray bottle and spray the areas of your gardens where you regularly see fox activity or droppings.

What Problems Do Foxes Cause?

If you’ve seen the first fox in your garden and are lucky enough to have escaped the encounter without any damage then you may just be doing some initial research. Well if that’s the case, you may want to know whether it’s worth the effort to deter them, or to just let the fox do it’s thing.

I can certainly assure you that you should get rid of them at the first sign. Foxes are an absolute pain! They destroy pretty much everything they can get their hands on. They dig holes, rip up your flower beds, go through your bins, chew your hose and riffle through anything else they can, they’re curious creatures.

Tips On How To Stop Foxes Coming In Your Garden

There are some general things you can do in order to stop foxes coming into your garden. These tips target some of the loves & hates we mentioned foxes have and can help deter foxes and prevent them coming back:

1. Make sure you keep your garden as clean as you possibly can, remove any rubbish that might be blowing around, and just generally keep it tidy – Foxes won’t come back if they have no reason too
2. If you have a fox issue, unfortunately they will leave faeces. Make sure you pick these up regularly, which we know isn’t the most desirable job – you have to thoroughly hose down the area as well. This is part of them leaving their scent, so use any smell repellents or the DIY smell repellent we told you about earlier in the place of the faeces
3. Move things around – foxes like familiarity, so make sure you move your gnomes, hose, whatever it is, just try and disturb the area
4. Cut the grass, trim the hedges & keep everything in check. They like shaded areas, the less of them the better
5. If you have noticed an area they regularly bed down and find comfortable, place a large object that they can’t move on it
6. Invest in some of the products that we are going to mention later!
7. Now you may not want to do this it’s completely up to you, it sounds bad but stay with us. Pour male urine in the areas the fox regularly spends time – it’s a deterrent believe it or not!

If you’ve followed all the tips we’ve given so far and you’re still struggling to get rid of them then there are a few products that you can invest in, which we’ll go through next!

Products To Keep Foxes Out Your Garden

Sometimes homemade DIY solutions just won’t cut it. There are a lot of products out there that you can use in order to prevent and deter foxes coming into your property, and most of them aren’t expensive.

Fox Wall Spikes
These will often be enough to do the trick. Most of the time foxes come over your fence or gate so adding some spikes to the top of them can act as a great deterrent, not only for foxes but cats, birds and other animals wanting to get in via the fence.

Here are a few of the features of the wall spikes:

• They come in a wide range of different length and widths, often in packs of 10 or more
• They are ideal for fences, window sills or walls, as long as you get the right size of course
• Most are designed for all weather conditions – with foxes being active in winter, this is important
• They are humane, they don’t hurt the fox, they just irritate it to the point it won’t enter
• If you get the wrong size or it doesn’t quite fit, it can usually easily be cut to do so
• Easy to fit

Here are our top fox wall spike picks for you, as you can see relatively speaking their pretty cheap compared to some of the damage the fox could do:

Before committing to buying any fox wall – make sure you get the right size & read all the reviews of the product.

Fence Roller
Another thing you can do to your fence, similar to that of the spikes is to install a roller at the top, so when they jump up they can’t grip onto anything and just fall straight off. A quick Google search for “Fence Rollers Anti Climb” will give you an example of what I’m talking about.

These rollers are fool proof if installed correctly, they can be a good solution if the spikes aren’t quite working, but it will be more expensive generally to buy and harder to install, so should be a secondary option.

Taller Gates & Fences
You obviously have to stick within government limits, but if you’re having a real problem and they’re still getting over the fences despite putting on a fence roller and spikes then you may want to consider taller gates & fences so they can’t easily jump over them.

In the UK you’re allowed to have a fence & gate of up to 2m. A fence or gate of this size should prevent foxes getting in, that way at least.

Add Lights, Everywhere – Foxes Hate Light
As we mentioned earlier in the article, foxes hate the light. It startles them and they’ll often run off if they see any sudden appearance of light. You may have already guessed at this point, but if you get a sensitive motion sensor light fitted to the exterior of your building where the foxes often walk then you can make it uncomfortable for them & deter them.

Motion sensor lights are essentially as the name suggests, they have a motion sensor built in, if it picks up any movement in it’s coverage vicinity then it will activate the light.

We’ve picked out a few products for you that should do the job, but make sure that you read the reviews. As foxes are of course smaller than humans you will need a light that is very sensitive, you also want to pick one that is bright enough to startle the fox.

Here are a few of our top motion sensor light picks:

Automatic Fox Water Repellent System
It’s again trying to work on the aspect of startling the fox, making it uncomfortable. A great way of doing this is an automatic fox water repellent system, which is a fancy way of saying motion sensor sprinkler.

These sprinklers are easy to use and install, and when the fox walks by them, they’ll get a nasty surprise and hopefully run off.

Here are some of the general features of these systems:

• They are used to deter unwanted visitors from your garden
• It’s a harmless jet of water, you won’t hurt the fox
• You can position it near flower beds or anything you want to protect
• The built in sensor often detect to a range of around 10 metres and activates in just a few seconds
• You can get options that work with batteries, meaning installation is easy

Here are our top motion sensor sprinkler picks:

UltraSonic Fox Repellent
We mentioned that foxes don’t like loud noises, and there’s a solution for this too. Remember that mosquito sound they developed to try and keep kids away from street corners at night? These are essentially the same for your garden to pests.

These products each have their pros and cons, so it’s best to look through them thoroughly. We can’t detail the specific features for you because each one is quite unique in what it’s offering.

However, without further ado here are out UltraSonic pest repeller choices:

Fox Smell Repellents
As we’ve detailed in this post, Foxes have a strong sense of smell and there are DIY ways you can create a smell repellent, however there are also several ready made solutions to choose from.

Most of the repellents come as simple sprays or pellets, and all work in the same fashion. These can be effective but I would also group it with another one of these methods as well just to ensure it properly deters foxes.

Here are our top smell repellent choices, Scoot is probably the best known out the few:

It’s worth noting as well that some of these solutions may not be great if you have pets yourself, as it can often harm cats & dogs.

Prickle Strips
Prickle strips are a good solution to the problem as well, you essentially embed them in your soil or grass and it makes them uncomfortable to walk on for all small animals – make sure you wear shoes in the garden if you put these down!

Here are the features they generally have:

• Safe and won’t harm animals as there plastic, just uncomfortable
• Works for all kind of pests, not just foxes
• Easy to wrap around poles or trees
• They stop foxes digging up your garden
• Easy to use

Here are our top prickle strip picks:

How To Prevent Further Fox Problems

Now you’ve got rid of the foxes, but there’s every chance that they could come back. As well as some of the things we’ve mentioned previously there are a few more things you can do to try and prevent it happening again:

For the love of god, don’t feed them!
This should go without saying, please don’t feed the foxes. If you feed foxes it makes their territorial area much smaller (your garden) and it also means they are more likely to dig and foul in the area, which of course you don’t want. Feeding them will mean they return constantly, they’ll try harder to get into your garden if they know it means food.

Get those bins bolted down
One of the main things that foxes come into your garden for is food, and to them, food is in your bins. If your bins are unsecured and you’ve left something nice in there for them to eat then they’ll keep returning. Make sure you secure your bin storage in an area they can’t get them, like a shed.

Keep the garden clean
We’ve mentioned this above, but keep your garden clean. Any rubbish will attract them. Overgrown gardens also give them more shelter, which they love, make sure you trim the hedges back and cut the grass, don’t let them be comfortable.