How to deter foxes

Garden noob

I live on the edge of London near a railway line so it's no surprise that we have a bit of fox activity around here (although I rarely see them), but in the past few months they've really started becoming a nuisance (we've been here for 5+ years with no real bother before - minor digging in the lawn, a couple of poos from time to time etc). 

But now they keep digging under our fence to get to the bridge that goes over the railway line, presumably to their den. They're digging through a raised bed so the soil is very easy to dig. The bed isn't very wide and the garden isn't very big, so their digging has a disproportionately large impact and I'd really like them to stop! 

Any ideas how to deter them?

So far I've place placed bricks in their hole and filled it back in, but they keep digging up the bricks (but don't seem to get through the hole). Now they've dug a new hole, so I've just created a new problem as opposed to the contained problem that it was previously. Rightly or wrongly I've blocked the new hole with bricks and filled it in like the last one.

I'm open to any reasonable suggestions! I don't have any love for foxes but am happy to live alongside them as long as they stop digging up the raised bed. 

Allotment Boy

This is a tricky one as they seem to be keeping a route through open rather than digging for food as is more usual. The RHS have advice on their website but this is usually about not using bone meal etc. Male human urine is said to put them off, the only other thing may be to create a new route that is less problematical to you. Sorry not to be more help.

Garden noob

Allotment Boy - thanks for your thoughts, it confirmed my assumptions. And when I saw the new hole my first reaction was to "leave my scent" so I'm glad I wasn't mad to do so 😂

Re them keeping a route through, as far as I can tell they're only digging out of my garden, not into it. I don't know why the can't take the non-destructive route both ways 🤷🏻‍♂️

steephill

How about giving them a cat ladder kind of thing to get over the fence instead of going under it? A plank laid against a fence post might be enough.

Allotment Boy

I have recently resorted to ultrasonic scare device to stop a cat cra**ing on my front grass, seems to be working so far. Don't know if they do one for foxes though.