Pest Control Diary: Fox Cubs

From mid May through to late July is when my phone rings constantly as fox cubs start making appearances. Boldly playing close to their den or walking down the hedge row hunting up on their own! This gives me the chance to watch them or gather information not so much to know there whereabouts, but to learn the runs they use; making it easier to catch up on them later. It’s a learning process for the cub as they gain experience and confidence looking for good food sources and generally building up their knowledge of the area and the dangers. So it’s important you get things right from the start!

QUICK LEARNERS

Foxes are very quick learners and will remember a good place to dine and so will visit frequently. Likewise it only takes one bad experience to make it shy away whether that’s a lamp or a faulty cage trap that failed for whatever reason and you will have a job on your hands to bring it to book. A lot of people rely on baiting up to get the foxes to hopefully drop their guard as they pick up whatever tasty morsels you’ve put down for them. Great; you choose the spot so you know the range and ensure it’s in front of a safe back stop and you might even consider a bit of shelter too. But there’s different ways of baiting up and a wide range of baits you could use and that all depends on where and what they are feeding on in that area. Retaining knowledge is one of the fox’s best assets; if there are chickens then the fox will keep trying if they don’t succeed at night then they will visit during the day. So if you’re baiting up an area do it over a long period of time to help improve your chances.

Two of the foxes best senses are sight and sound; any movement will catch their eye especially if your calling as the fox will be homing in on you; after all it’s you that’s making the noise! Another major sense is smell. One bait I use is a cheap tin of dog or cat food spreading it over a given area or any scraps I have left after dressing birds. The only trouble with baiting up is it won’t go unnoticed by the crows and magpies, by the time the fox comes along there might not enough bait if any to keep them there. It might even pass straight through if it doesn’t pick up the scent of a free meal.

TRICKY DICKEY

To combat this I have another trick up my sleeve, that is to throw out large pieces of (frozen) bait like a rabbit quarter. Being frozen it will keep the crows off as it slowly defrosts; great if you can only bait up before going to work! Another trick is if you have a badly shot rabbit is to put it in a cloth bag (keeps the crows off) and hang it up a few feet off the ground in or near your baited area to let the wind blow the scent over a wider area drawing the foxes in. If you’ve dressed out a hundred or more rabbits you’ll know what I mean; the smell stays with you no matter how many times you wash your hands.

As a good all round bait on my chosen night when I have more time I will throw smaller bite- sized fresh pieces an hour or so before I am due to settle down to watch and wait over the baited area. Believe me this works when everything else fails. The rabbit in a bag can also be used in conjunction with a cage trap and increases your chances of success when using snares. Instead of the fox passing through once it will keep in the area longer looking for the source of the smell.

I have had as many as three foxes sitting under a bait bag which I had hung high as it was a deep sided valley so to maximise the chances of the wind carrying the scent. I also didn’t want the fox to grab it and run off. All of this and more I learned in my early days of foxing. I have as you can imagine had hours of frustration but never a wasted minute as its all good experience that adds to your pool of knowledge!

WATCH THEN SHOOT!

A lot can be learned from watching your quarry, though it can take some self-control not to raise the rifle when the fox first comes into sight especially if it’s taken some time and effort to bring them into range. To be honest I have learned more from my failures than successes!

From mid May to June I can take just as many fox cubs with my Brno 22 rimmy during the day when checking my traps as I can at night with a full bore rifle and lamp, as long as I keep within the 22’s limits to ensure a clean kill. At this time of year the cubs will be the size of a large hare and will fall instantly to a well placed heart shot. I have also shot a bull with a 22 rimfire, but that’s another story for another day!

One afternoon while out checking my traps, a day after the grass had been cut I looked up on the far bank and saw a fox sunning it’s self at the same time I started in a fit of sneezes. The fox immediately sat up looking directly at me (great) here’s me caught out in the open drawing all the attention, but not for giving up I turned around and walked away not daring to look back in the hope it didn’t feel threatened. At best it would slope away and with a bit of luck I would catch up with it in the next field!

SNEEZE & SHOOT

I walked down the hedge row until I was out of sight of the fox, coming round full circle but saw nothing in the top field so slowly carried on walking back on the same side within yards of where I first saw the fox again nothing! I sneezed again the fox raised its head above a clump of grass, holding back another I just had time to put the cross hairs on and touched the trigger. Either I was very lucky or he was very unlucky but I never expected it to stay in the same place after all the disturbance. Perhaps if I had done things any other way the outcome would have been different, I think one main factor was I totally ignored it and walked off in the opposite direction. Another was it was a good sized cub and not totally switched on; the thing is I tried and was rewarded instead of throwing in the towel.