Deterrence of Wildlife

Chickens, rabbits, etc. should be locked in a closed stable at night.

Compost heaps are always an attraction and meeting point for wildlife and should be covered where necessary. Avoid leaving windfall fruit on the ground as much as possible, and protect berry bushes with netting. Household waste, garden refuse, etc. should be kept in solidly sealed containers or bins. Rubbish bags should not be left on the street for days on end, but only put out on the day of collection. Food bowls belonging to domestic cats are also attractive to wildlife.

Should an unwelcome visitor nevertheless settle in the garden, one option is relocation using live traps available for animals of all sizes. However, traps are not selective. As a result, animals other than those causing the damage are often caught (cats, polecats, martens, etc.). This problem can be minimised by placing the traps directly in front of, or in the immediate vicinity of, the hiding places of the wildlife to be caught.

When foxes, badgers and the like are caught and released somewhere else, they suffer fear and stress during the capture. If they then find themselves in a completely unfamiliar environment, this causes further stress, among other things: they cannot find their way around an unfamiliar territory and must defend themselves against established residents.

Sooner or later, the young animals will disperse and seek a new territory; the parent animals move on.  The trapping method is preferable to the hobby hunter, because the wildlife has a real chance. The hobby hunter usually arrives with a gun and wants to kill!Shooting animals in a residential area can be very dangerous. People (children!) or pets can be put at risk. Time and again we hear from the media that trigger-happy individuals mistake a fox for a cat or a llama for a deer. Quite a few hobby hunters have psychological problems and are unable to assess the situation correctly.

The topic of disease is extremely overstated by hobby hunters. More people are struck by lightning or injured in hunting accidents than are infected by wildlife with a disease. In most cases, it is the wildlife killers themselves who contract a zoonosis!

Trapped and removed animals are often replaced by members of the same species who either do not yet have their own territory or are expanding their range. The newcomers follow the scent markings left by their predecessor, which show them exactly where the entry points or food sources are. Close off potential hiding spots, for example near the garden shed (first make sure no animals are inside). Immediately seal any freshly dug holes or burrows!

Another solution is deterrence. Deterrence refers to the permanent dispersal or exclusion of wildlife — either unintentionally or as a deliberate, non-lethal method of inducing an appropriate change in behavior in wild animals. Exploiting innate behavioral responses to environmentally neutral influence over the targeted wildlife — by simulating natural predators — is playing an increasingly important role in this approach.

• Electric fences can keep wildlife away
• Repellent substances are used to deter wildlife.
• Radios and motion detectors with sound and light effects are used to deter wildlife.
• Crow clappers are used to deter ravens and crows.
• Spikes are installed on specially listed buildings to deter pigeons.
• Compressed-air cannons are used in vineyards.
• Ultrasound is used to repel martens or voles underground.
• Scent substances (toilet blocks, synthetic products, sweat, etc.) are used to repel wildlife.
• A dog in the garden will drive away wildlife.
• Dog and human hair repels wildlife.
• Aluminium strips that produce noise from wind and light reflections repel wildlife and birds.
• Scarecrows are intended to keep birds such as crows away.
• Water shower with garden hose deters wildlife
• Thriller whistles deter wildlife

To protect free-ranging rabbits, ducks, rabbits, etc. in the garden from foxes, martens or other predators, they should be kept at night in a safe, spacious enclosure. The free-range area should be secured during the day and night with an electrifiable pasture fence. Nowadays, fine-mesh, flexible small animal fences in various heights (50–170 cm) are commercially available specifically for use near the home, providing protection for free-ranging small animals.

When foxes are removed from an area, the remaining foxes respond with increased offspring, and the vacant area is quickly reoccupied by new foxes. It is also well known that fox populations cannot be permanently reduced even through intensive hunting.

Many people enjoy the presence of wildlife and are willing to share their habitat with them. Wildlife enriches the fauna and quality of life in our residential areas, just as blackbirds, frogs and hedgehogs have long done. Enjoy the opportunity to share a habitat with a wild animal and perhaps observe it. You will be fascinated! With a little tolerance and the right behavior, a peaceful coexistence between wildlife and humans should be entirely possible.

IG Wild beim Wild

Scent substances:

Due to the penetrating odour, application in inhabited areas is often not possible.

Hukinol: Reliably deters all wildlife species from areas where they are unwanted by means of a concentrated human sweat odour. Hukinol has a very persistent and long-lasting smell, so that just 1 bottle per hectare is sufficient for effective protection. Hukinol is applied like conventional repellents by dripping it onto rags and hanging them on stakes at intervals of approximately 10–20 metres. The use of this product is not recommended in inhabited areas due to the strong odour. Hukinol is suitable for preventing wildlife damage in forests and fields, for fawn rescue in meadows and for protecting poultry from predators.

Antibissan: Keeps away crows, roe deer, wild boar, birds of prey, foxes, martens, voles, moles, snails and ants; ideal wildlife barrier; the scent and active substances are perceived by the animal, creating an enemy image (human) in the subconscious and driving the animal to flee. Long-lasting effectiveness; the active substances used are harmless to humans, animals and the environment.

Limses: For reducing deer-vehicle collisions on roads and for wildlife deterrence on smaller cultivated areas. Limes works exclusively through scent, creating heightened alertness or irritation in wildlife. Limes dispensers are hung on both sides along roads or around cultivated areas on trees, shrubs or posts. The distance between dispensers should be 10–20 metres.

Porocol: A synthetic scent compound housed in a weather-resistant plastic evaporator column. Porocol is used on roads with high wildlife crossing activity, for protection against browsing damage in forest areas with young plants, or in fields such as maize fields to prevent wild boar from entering. In addition, Porocol is excellent for fawn rescue (mowing deaths). For fawn rescue, the evaporator columns should be placed 1–2 days before mowing the meadow.

Armacol: In multi-month applications in European big game areas, Armacol has proven extraordinarily effective in wildlife management and deterrence. Armacol reliably drives away all wildlife species from areas where they are unwanted through concentrated human sweat odour. Armacol has a highly adhesive and lasting scent, so that just 1 bottle per hectare is sufficient for an adequate effect. Armacol is applied like conventional repellents, dripped onto rags and hung on posts at intervals of approximately 10–20 metres. The use of this product is not recommended in residential areas due to its strong odour nuisance! Armacol is suitable for wildlife management in forests and fields (forced movement), for fawn rescue in meadows and for protecting poultry from predators.

Fowikal: Available at Landi in Switzerland for badger, deer, roe deer, fox, etc.

Zoonoses in the fox:

As independent studies by the Friedrich-Loeffler Institute for Animal Virus Diseases and the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research have shown, it is not possible to influence sylvatic rabies through hunting measures. As experience from the 1970s demonstrated, this was not achieved even through the unprecedented campaign of extermination, during which all accessible fox dens across the country were treated with poison gas and foxes were relentlessly pursued with traps and rifles. Only the large-scale distribution of vaccine baits led to the eradication of rabies.

Hunting foxes also has no influence on the prevalence of the small fox tapeworm. The latest research from the University of Hohenheim, the Technical University of Munich and the University of Zurich suggests that hunting foxes could actually be counterproductive with regard to the occurrence of the small fox tapeworm, as hunting affects the age structure of populations.