The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Wildlife => Topic started by: mab on September 24, 2015, 08:07:34 pm
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I discovered today several large patches of grass have been torn up on the slope of the hill :rant: ; it can't be any of my animals as they're not in that field. I wouldn't mind if it was a yard or so, but there are several patches totalling maybe 1/5 acre, and it's not likely to grow back in at this time of year. Must have happened over a few nights at most. Spent some time this evening trying to re-lay some of the rolls on the bare earth but I'm not too optimistic about the grass re-rooting anytime soon.
I couldn't see any hoofprints anyway, so that probably rules out wild boar (not that I've seen any of those here), but possibly the odd small paw print - smaller & squarer than the labradors and bigger than a cats - maybe 1 1/3" across, and what looks like some excrement? (pictured).
could it be badgers? (not seen any of those here either TBH but that doesn't mean there aren't any) or foxes? (lots of those here)
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My guess would be badgers.
Regards
Sue
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http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/ (http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/)
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I'd say badgers :( They do a powerful amount of digging!
Try and get something living in the field asap - it might discourage them from building a new set.....once they've moved in you're stuck with them :tired:
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One of either types of pigs (the black and white kind or the hairy kind).
If its the latter, then I will happily come and remove them, and give you a bottle of whisky for the pleasure!
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I'd say badgers :( They do a powerful amount of digging!
Try and get something living in the field asap - it might discourage them from building a new set.....once they've moved in you're stuck with them :tired:
They are a protected species valued above all others (some may say - irrationally) by the british public, you should be proud to offer them a new home.
(Avoid buying a rare or expensive breed of cattle to live in the field - the badgers could get tb)
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I'd say badgers :( They do a powerful amount of digging!
Try and get something living in the field asap - it might discourage them from building a new set.....once they've moved in you're stuck with them :tired:
well I could put the sheep back in, I suppose - though it'd mess up the worm-control plan - they've not been out of the field that long.
Sadly I rather suspect they're already resident in 'the wilderness' - I've got acres of overgrown scrubland.
Actualy I remember there was a bit of similar damage last autumn but not nearly so much - so maybe it is the mushrooms they're after.
I wonder what time they're out - I've made a couple of trips this eve with the dog but there's no sign of them.
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Having sheep in a field doesn't stop badgers using it. . . . I regularly see them in and around stock whilst lamping.
They are mostly nocturnal.
Probably not that wise saying you go looking for badgers with a dog :D You'll get a bad name. :-J
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OK, the sheep can stay where they are then; would the shetland pony stop them I wonder...
huh, yeah, I hadn't though of it that way - though me n the dog were just going to scare it if we can (at least that was my plan - though maybe that's illegal too). I don't want to camp out in the field all night though :( .
thanks folks, at least I know my adversary now, even if I don't know what to do about him.
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I am pretty sure if the pony interferes with the sett it can be clapped in irons and sent to Australia. You could be seen as complicit in the pony's heinous crime.
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Depends on the pony. . . . . . also seen brock around horses, however some horses are mardy little buggers and will have a go at any intruder. So maybe you'll get lucky.
Its a sad fact that you really can't legally do bugger all. They have a daft and pointless level of protection. If it was any other species, including many more useful, beautiful or rare, you could just kill it.
But because its a common, pain in the arse, disease carrying badger . . . . you just have to hope it goes away or walks into a car.
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Personally I would be thrilled if badgers moved onto my land. ( I don't have any cows to give them TB - so they will be fine ;-) ) .
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Please come to wales, we give away a free badger for every visitor. Just come and collect whenever you fancy.
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huh, well the pony is fairly laid back TBH, gets on with the sheep and ignores dogs unless they're actively winding her up.
In principal I don't object to resident badgers, and they're welcome to any mushrooms, beetles or anything like that; I've even got around my fox problem by installing herris fencing around the chickens rather than get rid of mr fox; but if the badgers can wreck a 1/5 acre of pasture in just a few nights they're going to exhaust my tolerance in record time.
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Personally I would be thrilled if badgers moved onto my land. ( I don't have any cows to give them TB - so they will be fine ;-) ) .
I used to think that, until one morning the door torn off the call ducks cage, ducklings gone and their mum gone crazy. Tracks told the tale :-(
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Badgers made a mess of some of our beehives, they knocked/pushed them over to get in and eat the honey and brood.
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Where are you? It could be red dear as it is rutting time!
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In principal I don't object to resident badgers, and they're welcome to any mushrooms, beetles or anything like that; I've even got around my fox problem by installing herris fencing around the chickens rather than get rid of mr fox; but if the badgers can wreck a 1/5 acre of pasture in just a few nights they're going to exhaust my tolerance in record time.
They'll probably be youngsters digging for earthworms. Badgers will happily travel three miles in a night. They excrete bTB through urine, faeces, sputum, pus from fighting wounds .... In the right damp, dark conditions the bTB can stay active for months. They will eat hedgehogs, ground nesting birds, chickens, newborn lambs, udders of downer cows. They have spread bTB to dogs, cats, alpacas, stoats, weasels, deer and humans. I have no objection whatsoever to badgers, I just want healthy ones. The most annoying thing is that I find them emaciated and too weak to hunt lying under the hedge in early Spring but I'm not even allowed to put them out of their misery.
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it could be someone looking for treasure :roflanim:
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it could be someone looking for treasure :roflanim:
Or wild boar truffle hunting, you could be sitting on a goldmine :roflanim: .
Can't quite get to grips with the badger protection thing....other species that overpopulate are regularly culled to keep the numbers down to a reasonable level, i.e. rats, foxes, deer, wild boar, pigeons and rabbits, nobody starts jumping up and down about that, so whats so special about a destuctive and diseased predator such as the badger, that cannot be put out of its misery even when it's terminally suffering?
Here there are so many that hardly a couple of days goes past when I see yet another badger dead on the roadside having been hit by a vehicle, I know for a fact that many are killed on the local railways despite having had special tunnels under the tracks built for them and gaps left in the electrified third rail where their traditional paths are - nobody comments on these deaths. :innocent: .
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A pony that was trained to deter/chase badgers could be worth an awful lot of money ;D I know a good few farmers who'd love one!!
Obviously in a safe and humane way.......
Badgers root the fields here dreadfully so I'd say badgers or wild boar?
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http://orig09.deviantart.net/2d6b/f/2011/253/1/2/apple_boom_by_contrail09-d49esv2.jpg (http://orig09.deviantart.net/2d6b/f/2011/253/1/2/apple_boom_by_contrail09-d49esv2.jpg)
One of these?
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I get that on my hill paddocks and its badgers. they dig anything from a wee hole to a huge area. Dig up the bubble bees who nest in the ground. Eat eggs and young chicks from ground nesting birds, I hate them. One took the skin of the side of one of my Shetland ponies face when he got too close. Pony was just a yearling, poor lad got a right fright and needed the vet who said this was happening more and more.
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I'm fairly sure it's not red deer here (I've lived near red deer before and I'd probably hear if they were rutting anywhere near). no evidence of hoofprints at the 'crime scene' which is why i'm thinking not wild boar either - just the odd paw print. don't know if stock fencing would stop either species.
went out 6 times last night on patrol - the dog did chase something back under cover early on but I didn't see what.
spend an hour this am unrolling the turfes and trying to replace them on the bare patches - actually worked surprisingly well; a lot of the torn up turf was on top of undamaged grass and now it's more or less back in place the field looks a lot better. but I do wonder what the chances of the turfes staying put and growing are.
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Most likely badgers and usually happens around this time every year and continues for a few weeks before they move on. Youngsters looking for worms. Other possibilty is rooks but they tend to pull out small tufts rather than actual lumps of sward. Last year they had a go at 2 different fields damaging about 1 acre before moving on. By spring ours has always recovered without any intervention.
Resourceful and intelligent mammals which have managed to survive in spite of mans worst efforts ranging from sheer brutality through to the excesses of modern farming practices.
Regen
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Heck. I was about to post a similar query about torn up turf but the new holes in the field that I also found were round and not like an D on its side like it said on an internet search so i thought it might be foxes?? Do they rip up turf??
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Invest in a cheap trail camera. It is so much easier than staying out all night seeing what (or who) is visiting your fields ;)
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It looks like chaffer infestation to me. The grass is clearly dead. If it was just up rooted and flipped over I would expect it to still be alive especially in such damp conditions. There has been gazilions of chaffer this year and despite spraying twice they have taken out alot of my pasture again this year. The beetle lays its eggs in the soil. Preferably sandy soils as its warmer and lighter. Then the grub hatches and crawls along the about an inch or so below ground eating through all the grass roots and killing the grass.
Birds and animals will root out the bugs particularly crows and starlings and in the process you will find the dead grass lifted out. If you live in a mild part of the country they may still be some late hatching ones that havent yet been eaten or burrowed deeper to survive the winter. If you take a trowel and dig 2 or 3 inched down in the ground around the dead patch you might still find some.
They will look like a big fat maggot but with a dark stripe along their back. They will be laid on their side in a "C" shape and only have a couple of pairs of legs near their head.
Any surviving ones will emerge as flying bugs in May and the whole process will start again.
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Pee all around the area, this should stop it happening in the future.
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:roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim:
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OH tried that one when the badgers started digging up the tulip bulbs in the garden, they still come back every night. In the summer evening my neighbour can see them digging on our hill or trotting up our farm road. We are over run with them in my area and there is more chance of my chickens being killed by badgers than foxes now.
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Pee all around the area, this should stop it happening in the future.
Is that whats called 'Taking the P***?! :roflanim: .
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Have you, by chance got anyone with pigs in your area? How easy would it be for them to get into your field? A couple of years ago I had to collect pigs that had wormed their way out of their own pen and travelled down the road a fairly long way and turfed up someones lawn!! It took me all day to put it right!
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buffy, re the chaffers: I think the pics make it look more dry & dead than it is; I took the pics in the evening after a sunny day. Also the grass hasn't been topped or grazed sufficiently so there's a lot of dry strawish grass in there. most of the turves once unrolled and placed right side up were still green and some (on the big patch pictured) must have been there a bit longer as the grass was starting to yellow. add to that the soil here is the opposite of dry and sandy and I'm moderately sure it's not those beasties you describe (certainly hope not).
VF; Actually, the last two nights I've been out patrolling (no more destruction so far :excited: ) I have been 'marking my territory', as has the dog, in case it might work; it can't hurt. Trouble is my bladder doesn't seem to work like a dogs so I struggle to do more than one spot on a trip.
DL; there are one or two with pigs but I'm doubting pig attacks for the same reasons I'm now doubting wild boar - no hoofprints. Also, I tend to doubt they'd attack that particular field as it's sandwiched between a sheep farm and a beef farm (ignoring the scrubland that forms the nearest boundary of the field); there'd be much more convenient fields for pigs to find - I think.
Badgers do seem to be the main suggestion and the pawprints and droppings I've seen are probably consistent with that theory; and with several acres of untamed wilderness on hand and forestry land, I'd be surprised if there aren't badgers in the area - there are lots of foxes and millions of rabbits.
ooh, it's dark - just popping out to check...
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Lots of foxes and millions of rabbits you say. . . . . . . :dog: :dog: :dog:
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unfortunately the labrador's not a great deal of use when it comes to catching anything fast. Millions might technically be an exaggeration, but enough to support a thriving fox community.
Had a closer encounter tonight - found a couple of fresh-lifted sods but still didn't actually see the culprit - but I am sure I heard it crackling into the scrub as I approached. Might try a stealth approach tomorrow as I think I know where it comes out of the scrub now - see if I can discourage it from coming out in the open so much.
At least the weather's cooperating ATM.
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If they ever become a problem for you. . . . I've a dog thats quite fast enough :D