Garden mammals
Role in the garden
The mammals that visit a garden are rarely “all pests”. A useful distinction: rabbits, roe deer, voles and rats cause direct damage to crops and seedlings; foxes and badgers, on the other hand, are mostly opportunistic omnivores, their damage to the vegetable garden is occasional and they consume many small mammals (an indirect beneficial against voles). The squirrel remains an occasional visitor of hazels and walnuts, rarely a problem.
Practical guide
Where to find them
Rabbits and roe deer browse young shoots and gnaw the bark of fruit trees in winter; voles and rats plunder corn cobs and sown bean seeds and gnaw roots (carrot, beetroot); squirrels visit nuts; badgers and foxes may dig in the soil in search of grubs (collateral damage but not systematic).
Prevention
Fence with 1.20 m of chicken wire, buried 30 cm against burrowers. Wire runs at height against roe deer. Sleeves on young trunks. No killing of the fox or the badger: very useful to the balance (the fox devours quantities of voles and field mice), and their control is in any case strictly framed by law, keeping them away is better than destroying them.
Early signs
Gnawed shoots or bark; holes and turned-over soil near the seedlings (voles, rats); emptied corn cobs.
Action / control
Target the problem species specifically: live traps for rats and voles (with release if possible), fences against rabbits/roe deer. Foxes and badgers: let them pass rather than drive them off, they hunt the real pests themselves.
Sources
- RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) : Rabbits (rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/rabbits)
- RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) : Deer (rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/deer)
- LPO Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Les mammifères de Rhône-Alpes : Renard roux (atlasmam.fauneauvergnerhonealpes.org)