We prefer to fence pests such as foxes, wombats, roos etc out with our Wildlife Proof Fences. If you don’t live in Victoria where practically everything is illegal you might try using a breakneck snare to kill foxes which still manage to find their way through holes in your fences. These (stainless steel) snares cost less than $5 each online (easier than making your own) and work a treat – but in Victoria there is a $60,000 fine and even gaol for using them as it is considered ‘aggravated cruelty’. What nonsense! In the US for example they are common.
Baiting with strychnine used to be very good until our ‘nanny state’ forbade it. The fox would be dead within ten yards. We used to use 10:80 liver baits for years but that also stopped around twenty years ago. Since then the only (legal) baiting is with ‘Foxoff’ baits which most people have found do not work. The vixens just take them home to their den but don’t eat them. You can sometimes find a den with 100 uneaten baits in it. Strange behaviour. Lots of people bait using off-label chemicals (insecticides usually) which are often long-lasting and dangerous so I would not recommend that approach either.
Still, you usually need to reduce the fox population pre-lambing. If you have broad acres shooting especially using a spotlight is very good. Many people nowadays have small flocks in semi-urban settings such that this is not a viable choice. Too many people have become ‘allergic’ to guns, yet I can remember when (as a kid) I used to catch a train or bus with a rifle in my hand or slung over my shoulder (to go hunting) and returned with the harvested game on the train as well – and no-one thought twice about it. We live in poorer times now.
So far as I know you can still legally live trap a fox so long as it is ‘humanely’ killed (or relocated! Sure!) afterwards. A client (Brendan) has sent me his instructions and some photos for doing so which I thought might help incipient ‘sheep husbands’.
“I’ve attached a few photos of the fox trap I’ve been using for 10+ years. Very simple construction. I’m sure a man of you calibre will have no issue knocking something suitable up (Thanks Brendan!). I have a few tips that have been passed down to me/researched/learned the hard way that might help you get a few:
Make the trap bigger rather than smaller. Use wire over solid pieces. An open area feels less like a trap and more like as easy meal. Don’t underestimate the strength and desperation of your foe. I have had them chew through tie wire and escape through the hole. Apparently an adult will fit through a 100mm hole.
I made one for a friend out of 25mm gal mesh. Not a single fox. I Made him another one out of rusty bits and pieces(cyclone fencing, chicken wire, a rusty old crate) and he has caught countless since.
Put the trap where the foxes are, not where you want the foxes to be. I had mine next to the chook house for years and was very successful. Everyone though i was mad attracting the foxes to the chooks but the chooks are locked up secure. The foxes came every night to check the door was shut. I could tell from the scat everywhere.
Don’t put the trap in the middle of a paddock. It needs to be up against a fence, shed (mine is on an old horse shed now) pile of old fencing wire etc. Anything that makes the trap blend in. Grass growing through it and a couple of old gates to stop the sheep rubbing on it work well too.
Have it trigger from them pulling a bait rather than a floor trigger. I’ve had foxes drag dead ewes hundreds of meters so they are certainly capable of releasing the trigger.
I’ve found the best baits are chicken or ducks. Doesn’t have to be an entire bird but make sure it has feathers on it. Rabbits or pieces of lambs both with skin on work well too. Make sure it is tied on very well. The smellier the better.
I have kept a dead chook in a plastic bag for a week before putting it in the trap to try and catch one that could not be tempted in. It worked. And the following 3 nights I had what I presume were her 3 pups in the trap.
Lure them in the trap by baiting around the trap. Cheap fishy cat food spread around draws them in. I’ll quite often throw rabbit guts or Indian myna birds in the vicinity too”.
I have a folding dog trap of the sort shown here I made for trapping wary hounds who had failed to come in from a hunt years ago. Only needed to use it a couple of times but it did work. I also made such a trap out of the entire chook yard gate (chooks locked in shed inside yard) using a weight and trigger on the gate and that worked too. Wish I had taken photos of the trapped fox too, as Brendan has.
The same principle works for trapping possums (with a cat trap) if they are devouring all your citrus trees, roses etc. Take them a long way away to somewhere where you see the sign ‘Land for Wildlife’ or the like! 50 metres maximum distance – apparently distant pine forests are not suitable. Pity.
Thanks for the tip Brendan.
