Page 20 - Thrapston Life May 2023

BADGERS
Welcome visitors or not?
Allotment holders love wildlife, and many make efforts to encourage hedgehogs, frogs, and toads to visit their plots – but one
wild animal that is not so welcome is
the badger.
Badgers have a taste for sweetcorn and can decimate a crop overnight. However, they are covered by the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, in England and Wales, with a slightly different version in Scotland. Without a licence, it is an offence to disturb badgers or obstruct their paths.
There are a variety of methods that have been used to try and deter the animals from their favourite crops. The RSPCA recommend removing the food source as the most efficient deterrent, but as this is not practical on an allotment then other means need to
be deployed. Suggestions from plotholders include male urine sprayed around the plot,
chicken wire enclosing the sweetcorn crop to a height of 1m and buried in to the ground for at least 6 inches, an ultrasound device with LED lights, plastic water bottles (remove top and bottom and split lengthways) placed over the ripening corn and, if the
badgers are established and cannot be moved, the suggestion to feed the badgers elsewhere on the site – peanuts are a favourite.
it is an offence
to disturb badgers or obstruct their paths
Article kindly supplied by The National Allotment Society. Find out more at: www.nsalg.org.uk
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