OT: Mid-Wales is Over-run by Badgers

trisha · Post by **trisha** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 5:28 am

Serpent wrote:>And if you do an Off-Topic post about the Outer Hebrides being overrun by badgers, for example, I, for one, will NOT tell you to shut up<

And now for something completely different. Badgers in the UK are a protected species. Not a hair on their heads can you touch - except as roadkill, nor their setts.

Mid-Wales is overrun by these animals who hunt for earthworms and berries and occasionally tidy up carrion - supposedly. Last Autumn we lost an 80lb ram lamb overnight...well half of him. This was to a badger for sure - foxes just don't do things this way...The ground was frozen and there are far too many badgers.

Early summer, my six year old son had all ten of his bantam hens beheaded as they roosted in a raised hen house right beside our kitchen. The badger tore his way through tongue and groove timber and a weldmesh vent four feet off the ground...and left some hairs behind in the splinters.

Over the summer this year's young have moved into our "garden" (rather than just being all over the farm), dislodging rocks overnight down onto the path around the house, digging up grass, and leaving c**p piles to mark their territory all over.

Yesterday, I superglued two tears in the lower lip of our large lab/collie cross. These he received within four feet of our back door as he came back on a lead from a walk late Sunday evening.

Most people in the UK will never see a live badger, many will never see a squashed one....but winter is coming and once the ground freezes I dread to think what we will lose next. All my lambs are already born indoors and my ducks are corralled in the barn at night. The laying hens have electric trip wires around their houses.

Any good (and legal) ideas for persuading these persistant pests to go elsewhere?

Trisha...awash with damn badgers in Wales

Celtoid · Post by **Celtoid** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 5:58 am

Damn! I was afraid that it was true.

I was overrun by a beautiful blue heron in my back yard this morning.

Jerry Freeman · Post by **Jerry Freeman** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 6:03 am

Trisha,

Some years back, I was at a place that was similarly overrun by raccoons (not protected). There was a guy whose business it was to trap them humanely and take them somewhere else. Is there some kind of wildlife department that might have a program for dealing with them?

Best wishes,
Jerry

TelegramSam · Post by **TelegramSam** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 8:16 am

Well if you want to keep them out of the garden, you can sprinkle cayenne pepper over everything (just make sure to re-apply after rain) and they'll stop eating the veggies. You can wash them off yourself before eating them if you don't like spicy food.

I don't know about saving your animals, except maybe buying a few dachshunds, who were bred to hunt badgers (just don't let the authorities see them lol).

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 8:32 am

trisha wrote:The laying hens have electric trip wires around their houses.

You've got to admire the persistence of those laying hens in building their own Seigfried Line. Next they'll have machine gun nests.

lixnaw · Post by **lixnaw** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 9:07 am

TelegramSam wrote:
I don't know about saving your animals, except maybe buying a few dachshunds, who were bred to hunt badgers (just don't let the authorities see them lol).

i second sam's opinion, and you better get good hounds, badgers are extremely aggressive, their claws are razor sharp.

if nature were in balance, this wouldn't have happened. i hold nothing against badgers or any other living animal. badgers don't have many enemies their, so we'll have to balance the scale, or it would be at the expence of other living creatures. maybe more farmers have the same ideas. you'll break one law, but you obey to a bigger law aswell.
i hope you'll find some support

Fat Freddy's Cat · Post by **Fat Freddy's Cat** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 9:23 am

This was in the news this week, but I think it was hedgehogs not badgers that were causing a "problem" in the Hebrides.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/repor ... ails.shtml

They should send me across there - I'll kick some spikey hedgehog butt.

serpent · Post by **serpent** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 9:35 am

Badgers? BADGERS? We don' got no badgers!! We don' need to show you no steenking badgers!!!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

serp

antstastegood · Post by **antstastegood** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 10:59 am

<a href="http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/21/">Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers</a>

CHIFF FIPPLE · Post by **CHIFF FIPPLE** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 11:26 am

Any good (and legal) ideas for persuading these persistant pests to go elsewhere?

Trisha...awash with damn badgers in Wales[/quote]

They make good eating

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:11 pm

antstastegood wrote:<a href="http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/21/">Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers Badgers</a>

As our dear WyoBadger has been cut off from the message board by his employer, I forwarded that Badger link to him. His response:

WyoBadger wrote:I find that vaguely disturbing...where did I put that bottle of prozac...

kevin m. · Post by **kevin m.** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 12:47 pm

serpent wrote:Badgers? BADGERS? We don' got no badgers!! We don' need to show you no steenking badgers!!!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

serp

I got first dibs on 'Stinking Badgers' as a band name remember-the quote from '..Sierra Madre' was my signature for long enough!

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 1:40 pm

Trisha: I really sympathize. My family are ranchers and our equivalent pests in California are coyotes and lions and to a lesser extent, bears. There are so many restrictions on methods for controlling them that the largescale sheep industry in Northern California has disappeared (New Zealand subsidized lamb also contributed to the demise). We pay a fortune for lambmeat here for a critter that would be relatively easy to raise, were it not for the predators.

Poisons and traps are outlawed. If I were in your shoes, I would be inclined to break the law. The only legal recourse, and one that we use, are Great Pyrenees dogs that are raised with the sheep and fearless. But given what happened to your dog, I don't even know if that would work, assuming you could get one trained to guard your area. They might not be quick enough with badgers but they sure work on coyotes who are pretty squirrelly. Though not inherently flockmenders, Rhodesian ridgebacks are supposed to be pretty fierce and quick, though they are kinda goofy. They are super-tough dogs and are supposedly used to hunt lions in Africa.

Isn't rampant environmentalism great? Especially urban-based with little to no respect for farmers and ranchers? It's a very polarizing issue in the US.
And for the flame weenies out there, no, I don't think we shouldn't care about bio-diversity etc. But consideration for farmers and ranchers is in short supply here and perhaps there as well.

johnz · Post by **johnz** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 2:50 pm

Shoot them, eat them if you like, and don't tell anyone.
Take care, Johnz

serpent · Post by **serpent** » Tue Sep 30, 2003 2:56 pm

johnz wrote:Shoot them, eat them if you like, and don't tell anyone.
Take care, Johnz

A good high-powered air rifle is relatively silent, and you can get night-vision sights from http://www.harborfreight.com at a discount.

"A loaf of bread", the rancher said, "is what we chiefly need"
"Barbecue sauce and beer besides, are very good, indeed."
"Now, if you're ready, badgers, dear, we can begin to feed!"

Shredded and chopped badger meat, cooked with good BBQ sauce, in the freezer, isn't easily identifiable. And you can burn the pelts and bones in a lovely ceramic kiln with nothing left over but ash.

Cheers,

serpent

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