Do forgive the title as obviously the greatest trappers come from the home of trapping - North America , but I can modestly say I am the greatest fox trapper in London and probably the UK and Ireland
It's been several months since I posted as I had retired after I had completely sealed my back garden and my neighbours with 2.1m high security fencing thus eliminating the fox runs from the rear gardens. These last few weeks the foxes have been making an unwelcome return on the road at the front of the houses in our street. Very annoying as their racket wakes me up. On Saturday I studied the outside of the front of my house and was wondering if there was any way of trapping them...a very daunting task because it is a busy public road most of the time and unlike my back garden which is very private and I can safely operate away from prying eyes, the front is very exposed in full view of all the neighbouring houses not to mention any passing pedestrians or motorists.
My initial reconnaissance mission highlighted a few remote possibilites...the houses directly opposite have hedges at the front where the foxes dart in and out of at night as they move up and down the street however that would entail getting permission from the neighbours and would involve a covert operation both of which seemed unlikely events. I then realised that there is a little bit of hedging at the front of my driveway but it is only 4 ft long x 3 ft high...hardly suitable for trapping foxes especially as it is not used as the main run by the foxes.


Then I had a little brainwave...these critters have a very good sense of smell as they are always targeting specific rubbish bags on collection days (the rubbish in our street is unwisely left out in black refuse bags which are easily torn open by foxes and cats) So I had to think of what I could use to entice them to come over to my side of the street and enter into my tiny piece of hedging. I decided on 2 slices of wafer thin smoked ham (the kind you use for making sandwiches).
I realised this was going to be a highly risky operation as there are plenty of bleeding hearted animal lovers around and if I were reported I could be expecting another visit from the RSPCA and it might be more difficult to explain away my actions. No doubt they are well aware of me as we had several encounters in the past.
Nevertheless I decided to take a chance and I set the snare in the hedge about 8:30pm about 1 hour before sunset taking care to avoid any prying eyes that might have been watching. That part was easy enough as I often do a bit of garden maintenance at the front and I am quite expert at setting snares at this stage. Takes less than a minute to set one up . I then stayed up late watching some series on NETFLIX. Around 12:30am I went out in the darkness first checking that there was no one about (the street is very brightly lit by streetlights) and discreetly placed 2 slices of wafer thin smoked ham about 2 ft away from the snare on the inside of the hedging on my property. There were no gaurantees that the foxes would enter through the hedge, they might simply have wandered in via the open driveway and taken the bait without ever disturbing the snare in the hedge.
At 2:30am I had a toilet break and went to discreetly check on the trap....As I opened the front door quietly I heard 2 sets of passing footsteps...I slid back behind my front door and left it ajar and I seen a couple walking past who were oblivious to the trap in the hedge. After they had passed I inspected the trap and the bait...both were still intact exactly as I had left them. I went back to bed...had a kind of broken sleep... I had the windows open so I could hear any possible fox noises especially any distress noises as that would alert neighbours etc.
To my fright I must have fallen asleep because daylight breaks shortly after 4am now in the summertime here and I woke up at 4:31am...I quickly went downstairs in a short pants just to peep outside to make sure there was no fox....I could hear scratching....my heart was racing....outside was a fox scratching against the telephone pole and he was attached to my snare.... I quickly returned upstairs, got dressed and was outside with the equipment that I had on standby (wire cutters , catch pole, and broom handle) I was outside at 4:34am ... I had the critter caught in the catch pole, the snare cut and a clean dispatch done all before 4:40am...I made that 6 minutes...some kind of record for me.


I do not know the exact time the fox got caught in the snare only that the time window was between 2:30am and 4:30am...I am guessing I got lucky and that the fox got caught in the snare between 4am and 4:30am as there were no police or RSPCA outside my house ! also lucky that the critter made no noise apart from during the 6 minute time slot that I was trying to manovere him into the catch pole...he was fiesty and made a few jumps at me while growling and yes this particular one barked at me. I suspect my immediate neighbours (the antis) witnessed the incident but they were most likely caught completely unawares and were unlikely to have had any time to take photos of the incident. I noticed their car was gone at 9:30am when I woke up later after I had gone back to sleep after dealing with the incident (Red no. 62). Never my intention to upset them but I don't like having my sleep broken.
Not sure when I will deal with Red no.63 as its far too risky now to deal with them at the front and the rear gardens are now fox proof. Love this forum.
All the best for now

until next time

FE

Busy, busy man ! Congratulations !

Good job! I don't know if this will help you out any, but here goes. At times here in this country some will use a one way slider, on a cable, to allow a trapped animal to move away from the spot it is trapped at along the cable to a spot out of sight. Just use a one way lock, like is used on a water drowning set. This is used to let an animal caught along side a road slide along the cable to some taller grasses or brush to hide from people going down the road, to prevent theft. Best of luck to you.
Dennis

Sounds like your having a lot of fun.keep up the good work.
Agree with the one way slide to move the captured animal to a more discrete spot away from the catch area.It will also preserve the actual catch site from getting tore up from repeat catches.

I don't think there is a discrete spot in that location given his pix!!

I've got a nice buck mink in the back of my house but that was when there were no houses behind me and my housing density makes me look like living in the country compared to you. You do have some serious nads in going against the stream in such an anti dominated society!! I can't believe you have that many reddies running around town but then again, as Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park, "life finds a way" . An altered ecosystem is still an ecosystem.

Of you 60+ fox, how many were caught on your property and how many you removed for friends and acquaintances? You can certainly choose not to answer, given that the commies could be monitoring this website. Given the virulent anti-animal control (by trapping) vibe that is in your country and the fact that the various UK governments have more cameras on their people than any other western "democracy", I wouldn't put it past the RSPCA to be on the hunt via various forums for you .

Hi NonPCfed,

Of the 62 foxes that I have caught so far (and all 62 were dispatched, I actually caught 63 but one escaped during dispatch) all 62 were caught on my property , 61 in the rear garden which measures 60ft x 25ft and the one earlier this morning in the front garden (technically it is just a drive way space as you can see from the photo)

I had previously offered to help out a work colleague with his fox problem in his garden with setting up traps but as he lives several miles away I think the reason he declined my offer was that he probably did not have the bottle required to do the dispatch himself and I am too far away.

Regards

FE

Amazing that many critters going though that small of territory. Must be an urban fox funnel!!

Could you cook off the head, clean up the skulls, and sell them?? Or is that massively verboten within the pc-world of the modern UK...?

Lol that’s pretty cool! And funny! It reminds me of when I was a kid living in town and snaring rabbits in hedges bordering peoples yards lol.

Thanks for the suggestion.
I have this evening attempted to clean up the skull...first time ever trying something like this...I followed some online video however I am at stage 3 right now basically where you would normally put the skull in a mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide but I don't have any so I used a 50% mixture of brickwash and water and added a few squirts of domestic bleach. I have no idea how long to leave it but will leave it over night. Tomorrow after I wash off the chemicals with a hose and leave it to dry in the sunshine if it is not really white I was considering using some white gloss spray paint or maybe black gloss spray paint. Does that sound reasonable or are there other ideas?
Regards
FE

Is it actually illegal to catch the foxes on your own property or just frowned upon?

I have heard a number of reports of babies and small children being attacked by foxes, in some cases even inside their own homes, in England. Why do most people in England allow this to continue?

Do you think England will ever get a less restrictive government?

Many of us over here in the US worry that the true English people will lose their country to the hoard of foreigners invading her, many from the former British Empire. Do you think England is lost?

Keith

Some is us Americans understand exectly what you're dealing with. This was today in Atlanta.

Always enjoy seeing how you do things over there Fox Exterminator. Thanks for sharing!

I think by putting the skull in bleach was a big mistake. You should remove the skull asap from that solution.

I don't think you should post on here???? But I do like reading about how you do things.......jk

Congrats on a job well done!

Hi Guys

Thanks for the feedback...There was only a few squirts of bleach in it...I removed the skull early this morning and cleaned it with a scrubber before hosing off the chemicals.

Any ideas for finishing it after it drys? Spray paint? This is my first ever effort at this (probably my last too as there is too much effort involved...my mrs would have a fit if she ever found out what I was doing in the kitchen last night...she is away for a few days with the kids...I did mention the idea to her and she was appalled...she said doing something like that was satanic...sounds like I might not be allowed to display it in the house!)

here is my effort...fantastic set of teeth on him...I am envious.



Also thanks for the concern about posting but I don't post too often and I doubt the authorities could ever use material here as evidence and I am not committing any crimes as far as I'm concerned as the foxes were trespassing on my property. As far as the skull goes, I am unsure about the legal situation, I am sure it would be frowned apon or it might be illegal if I killed the fox with the intention of taking a trophy skull in the first instance but that is not the case here. I only controlled the foxes that were causing a nuisance on my property.

The attitudes to foxes here in the UK will change IMO when there is a major incident...eg a fox killing a baby...the fox numbers are out of control over here and the authorities are turning a blind eye. (that will change)

Regards

FE

Looks like there’s some flesh still on the skull and lots of grease is still in the bone. You probably won’t want to do the work to get the grease out, but you can atleast take a wire brush and scrub the entire skull under hot water to get that remaining flesh off.
I’m guessing there’s still brain particles inside too.
Since you don’t seem to keen on having a perfect skull in the end, I’d say scrub the skull with a wire brush under hot water, let it dry in the sun for a day or two. Then dunk it in and fully submerge it in hydrogen peroxide. The cheap stuff that you buy at the grocery store. Let it sit in the peroxide for two or three days, rinse under hot water and let dry.
You should be happy with it once it’s done.

Thanks however Hydrogen Peroxide is not readily available over here...it has to be ordered online....In hindsight I should have ordered online instead of being impatient and using other chemicals. Letting the skull stand in an acid solution overnight was a very bad idea. That certainly killed off 100% of the bacteria but also rubberised the entire skull and the teeth...I doubt there is any brain matter inside, not much of anything I'd guess. The mass of the skull has probably decreased by 80% and it is now like a rubber toy that you might buy in a toy shop.

Beetle juice, Beetle juice, Beetle Juice...final image reminds me of the head shrinking at the end of the Beetle juice film. I find it very hard to believe the head was that size when I started the job. Anyway after a day or two the skull completely discoloured and when dried in the sun the teeth were almost translucent. I gave it one coat of white gloss spray paint. It could probably do with a second coat.
pics below.

It looks pretty good,now hang it off your rearview mirror in your car for a decoration.Or mount it on the dash.
Cut the tail off the next prime one,preserve it and tie it on to your car aerial.
All that should drive the Anti's right barmy.