Some of the main points in taking care of hedgehogs in your garden
- Hedgehogs need on average about four or five gardens to survive so it is a great idea to get together with your neighbours to make sure they have easy access to a run of gardens with some small openings for them to get through easily.
- Hedgehogs hibernate between November and March so it’s a good idea to provide some food for them if you see them out and about in cold weather where their natural food like slugs and other insects will be hard for them to find.
- If you are providing a place for hedgehogs to hide and find some food that you have laid out for them then you need to make sure that cats cannot get their paws in and hook the food out. Poor hedgehog only gets an empty plate and you think he has eaten it all :-(
- If you have areas of long grasses its important to make sure you check in the grasses before you go into strimmer in case there is a small hedgehog.
- If you have a compost pile always make sure you are careful when turning it over as many hedgehogs have been injured by garden forks used to turn the compost.
- Make sure you set any bonfires or garden fires at point of time. Building a pile of wood, twigs and other objects up over time (and this could just be as short as few hours if a hedgehog just happens to be in the area when you have left your pile unmanned) is an open invitation for hedgehogs and many have been burnt alive with careless gardeners or people building public bonfires on community sites.
- Garden ponds can be lethal for hedgehogs. Make sure your pond has sloping sides or a ramp of some sort like a wide log so that any hedgehogs that accidentally fall into the pond can escape. They can swim for short distances but only to help them reach a safe place to exit a pond easily.
- Pesticides and insecticides are very harmful and can kill hedgehogs. Avoid the use of slug pellets as hedgehogs and wild birds will eat the dying slugs and get poisoned too!
- Make sure your garden is a safe place for hedgehogs to roam freely without getting caught up in dangerous fencing or sharp dangerous objects. Many hedgehog deaths are due to being caught up in barbed wire or broken chicken wire fences or even trapped inside bottles and cans or plastic bags.
The Wildlife Garden Project shows you how to help hedgehogs in your garden. Hedgehogs are in decline in the UK, but this video shows you a few simple things you can do to help our prickly friends. Always remember to provide hedgehogs with fresh water.
Have you been blessed with hedghogs in your garden this year?