A positive experience of badgers
I HAVE noted that over a number of years, readers have written in with various problems with badgers (AG,
3 October). The simplest solution, if you have a problem with badgers, is to know a little bit about their habits and use it to your advantage!
Badgers are very clean animals – much more so than foxes, for example. Badgers will never dig a latrine (which, incidentally, is what it sounds like from the reader’s letter) anywhere near where they eat, so the easiest answer is to feed them! If you are patient, you will soon find out what time they visit and they are fascinating to watch.
Badgers do not have good eyesight so as long as you keep downwind of them, you should be able to watch them until they leave your garden.
The simplest food to give them is stale bread soaked in water to make a kind of bread pudding mix. If you really want to be their friend, add some sultanas; you can also add a bit of honey, but only as a treat as it will rot their teeth. I use a large strong bowl and also buy [unsalted] peanuts in bulk as badgers love them and will shovel up every last one. Depending on how many badgers I am expecting, I use two loaves and two cups of peanuts.
I live at the foot of the Mendips and have a recreational field at the back of my garden, with the badger sett in a copse at the other side of the field. My badgers would come every night, and I would have people ask if they could come and watch them with me!
Mrs Isobel Marshall, Wells, Somerset