Be Hedgehog Aware!
Gardens for Happy Hedgehogs!
If you have a hedgehog in your garden, then consider yourself very lucky! If you'd like to keep him or her there then follow these simple tips to make your garden safer and more attractive to these friendly creatures:
- Very tidy gardens are NOT friendly places for hedgehogs. If you leave a small corner behind or under bushes where leaves and other garden debris accumulates, a log pile with space inside hedgehogs will be attracted and inclined to stay. If this area is literally a sheltered corner in the fencing it may also serve as a good place of a hibernacula, a nesting place for the winter.
- Supplement their normal share of slugs, snails, beetles, worms, caterpillars etc. with regular snacks of good quality tinned cat or dog food. This will encourage them to stay. Please do NOT feed them bread and milk - this will only upset their stomachs. In the winter leave food out whenever you see evidence of hedgehog activity in the garden
- Water is also essential, especially in extremes of temperatures, but it can also be a hazard if you have a pool with a long drop to the water's surface and smooth lined sides. Suitably placed stones near the edge will help he situation (and incidentally frogs, newts and toads too!). Alternatively, a piece of small mesh chicken wire anchored in the earth and trained down the side of the pool will act as a climbing net.
Other hazards to hedgehogs are:
PESTICIDES!
This includes slug pellets! Whilst hedgehogs will not eat the pellet they will be poisoned by eating slugs that have. There are alternative methods of slug control and a resident hedgehog is one of them! Also growing success products are safe.
FIRES!
Pile up leaves and cuttings for burning in one area, then move them to the point at which you are going to burn them immediately before doing so (and be careful with the fork!) Piles of garden rubbish make attractive homes for hedgehogs, especially in the autumn and winter. November 5th bonfires are a particular problem here!
MOWING & STRIMMING!
Getting into those odd corners with the strimmer can do more than cut the grass. Long grass in protected places is a favourite place for hedgehog families to spend the daylight hours.
NETTING!
Nets for fruit, tennis, football etc. can trap hedgehogs very easily. If you have to use netting, check it daily at least.
HOUSEHOLD RUBBISH!
Cans, yoghurt containers, plastic cups etc and the plastic rings from packs of cans can get trapped over hedgehogs' heads! Part of their success in evolution is that they are opportunists and omnivorous eaters. Their inquisitiveness means they will literally stick their noses into anything that might provide a meal! Open containers of oil, paint or other hazardous substances are also a problem.
In more rural areas, cattle grids are also a hazard if they are too deep for hedgehogs to climb out of. A simple ramp of bricks or stones (possible with a piece of wood) in one corner is a simple solution to this problem.
Appreciate your resident hedgehog, but please do not be too possessive. Ensure that there is a means of escape from the garden, especially in a small town or village garden. For full physical and mental health, a hedgehog needs to be able to roam, to seek mates, and fine food, but making your garden as attractive as possible will increase the chances of it sticking around.
Should an amorous pair of hedgehogs snuffling and grunting in their mating dance disturb your night ‘s sleep, then rejoice! It is one of the best signs you can have to indicate you have an attractive garden!
