Different Ways to Get Rid of Foxes

Prevention is the best method of dealing with foxes: if you can keep them out of your property, then you don’t need to worry about hiring a service to remove them.

Remove Food Sources

Foxes are omnivorous: they both hunt and forage.  If you want to keep them away from your property, one means of prevention is to remove any opportunities for the fox to find food there.

• Don’t leave pet food out.
• Keep your garbage in a secured trash can, don’t leave bags out.
• Don’t use bone meal in fertilizer or compost – foxes will mistake this for buried food and dig it up.

Install Barriers

In some cases, removing food sources isn’t enough, or isn’t feasible (for example if the food source is livestock, such as chickens).  In these situations, you should install barriers to keep the foxes out.

• Install fencing around the property perimeter.  The fence needs to be at least six feet high and go at least ten inches into the ground to prevent the fox from digging under it.
• Install L-shaped footers around the base of any buildings that make potential burrowing sites for the fox’s den.
• To make chicken runs fox proof, use weld mesh, as foxes can bend and chew through chicken wire.  Install the mesh above and below the run, to prevent the fox from jumping over, or digging underneath.

If you already have a fox problem but don’t want to hire a professional to remove it for you, you can try trapping it.  There are a few trapping options available, including leg-hold and cage traps. 

• Leg-hold traps aren’t recommended, as they cause the fox a great deal of pain, both in the initial snap that captures it, and while the fox tries desperately trying to escape in the hours afterward.
• Cage traps are a far more humane option and make it easier for you to relocate the fox yourself.  As long as you wear gloves, and handle the trap carefully, you’ll be safe from the fox if it tries to lash out at you. With a leg-hold trap, you’re approaching a scared wild animal, restrained only by its leg.

Here are some tips for setting up the cage:

• Foxes tend to use the same travel and hunting routes, so set the cage trap up along one of these paths, but try to make it look like part of the surrounding area. 
• Foxes are intelligent animals and will recognize a wire cage in the open as a trap, so add some branches to camouflage it, but not so thoroughly that you can’t see inside. 
• You want to be able to check if the trap has caught a fox using sightlines from at least six feet away, to minimize your scent in the area.  Thoroughly wash the trap before use, and wear gloves when baiting and setting it to ensure you leave as little scent as possible. 
• The most effective baits for catching foxes are fish, meat fats, and pet food.

Fox repellents may seem like a quick and easy solution to fox prevention and removal, but the truth is that they aren’t effective.   

At most, they can be a temporary fix; however, because most repellents are just scents, the fox will become used to it and return.  A hungry fox will ignore the smell completely if it knows that there is also food nearby. 

There are also electronic deterrents available. These can appear more effectively initially, startling the fox the first few times they’re activated. However, as with the other repellents, the fox will get used to them over time, and either learn a path around or ignore them.

Foxes are territorial animals and will stick to and defend their area, so repellents won’t make them leave a den that they’ve made under your shed or deck, especially if they have pups.  Having a safe place to hide and sleep is higher on their list of priorities than unpleasant local smells.

Killing a fox (or the family living in the den on your property) won’t solve your problem long term.  What attracted one fox, will attract others, and with the current fox removed, it’s only a matter of time before another one claims its territory.  Now you’re back to square one, trying to remove another fox.

Foxes also eat rats, so having a fox claim your property as part of its territory keeps the rat population down.

If you want to get rid of a nuisance fox, and your prevention and trapping efforts aren’t working, consider hiring a wildlife removal expert to take care of it for you.