badgers in gardens

I have badgers coming into the garden digging up the lawn. They are looking for chafer grubs to eat.  I know that I need to get rid of the chafer grubs, but until that works, the badgers are destroying the lawn. How can I stop them coming into the garden?

I know that badgers are very keen on peanuts - perhaps if you put a regular supply of peanuts elsewhere  they might forget about the grubs?

I'm by no means knowledgeable about badgers but I understand that if their regular route is through your garden you can't do much to stop them. They'll break through fencing if it's in the way as happened to my sister. Perhaps your local Wildlife Trust will be able to help.

hi maria as hubby works in a zoo where they have regular badger watches to which they charge ten quid to watch them,dam cheek i say if its there regular run you will be seeing them for a long time im afraid very teretorial but they love peanut butter smeared on a log or a fow sandwhiches he said as long as you feed them they eventually wil leave your lawn alone so stock up on peanut butter.

you need to fence them out of the area and put down metal fence in soil arount boarder of fence to keep them from digging under. if this does not work you will need to use live animal traps to catch them and relocate them. As for grub I spray castor oil mix to make them taste bad to badgers.

when all said and done they were here first,do i take it you dont like them.

thegreatgardener wrote (see)

you need to fence them out of the area and put down metal fence in soil arount boarder of fence to keep them from digging under. if this does not work you will need to use live animal traps to catch them and relocate them. As for grub I spray castor oil mix to make them taste bad to badgers.

 

You need to have a licence to trap badgers in the UK!!!

And do I understand you to mean that you dig up the chafer grubs and spray them with caster oil???? 

I regularly have bagers cultivating my grass for me.

In my case it has nothing to do with cockchafers. They are looking for worms. These badgers have a strong preference for grass on shallow damp soil, where worms are near the surface and easily found.

They also love to excavate the undergroud nests of wasps or bees. Last Summer a badger excavated a foot-wide hole in my garden to get at a nest. I covered the hole over. The fellow came back the next night, and I managed to get this photo...

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Badgers are fine in the wild, but can cause a lot of damage in a garden. I will get some peanuts and see if that does the trick.

I'm inclined to think that putting down peanuts will simply encourage badgers, and other animals, to use your garden as a regular feeding station.

How many peanuts would you need to put down, so that a badger, and his wife and kids, would be fully satisfied, and do no further foraging - a few handfuls?

Peanuts are not cheap. Do you really want to commit yourself to such an experiment, indefinitely.