yes - I remember that one. Had it on the brain for ages…
We don’t have the badger problem but an even worse one with wild boar, sangliers. There are whole families around here and now they seem to have taken a liking to churning up our grass. Not really a Palouse I read they don’t like pee or human hair so will be resorting to those in an attempt to make them go away. Also those solar powered mole repellents we hope might put them off too The moles are active as well. Our grass is churned up quite badly. Going to use the earth from the molehills to fill in where the boar have been! Our friend is a hunter but they have limits on how many boar they can take out every year
Sorry to hear about your sangliers! Yes maybe implementing Operation Urinal would help you too!
We have a few more holes this morning but nothing on the scale of two days ago, so I am hopeful that it has made a difference.
The badger also had the common courtesy to re-excavate one of its existing holes instead of making a new one, which was appreciated!
I hadn’t heard of solar-powered mole repellents, those sound interesting. Though fortunately we have so far been spared attacks by solar-powered moles. 
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We too have more holes in the garden this morning thanks to the sangliers returning overnight. I suppose they’re after the same earthworms as the moles are. Our garden is a place of produce for the animal kingdom. Red squirrel buried the nuts surplus to immediate requirements. Deer pass through and nibble the roses en route. Woodpecker has a go at the wood on the house walls Don’t mind them so much but the boars are the last straw.
Chris, those solar powered mole repellents are for sale at Lidl. My brother in law recommended them as he used them in the Bourgogne and the molehills drastically reduced
Ditto… we get deer, foxes and squirrels as well as badgers. Plus local cats, and sometimes a heron who thinks he is entitled to snack on the goldfish in our pond (we have a big net across that now).
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If you can find them, I recommend the large toy windmills you can buy in places like Centrakor - but probably not at the end of summer! I started buying them a couple of years ago when, in the spring, our local deer began nibbling every single young rose shoot on the roses round our cottage/gite. The windmills have enough movement in them most days and nights to keep the deer unsettled. This sort of thing.
Each rosebush now has its own windmill. Perhaps not the most elegant of looks for a rose bed, but at least these days I do get the bushes flowering.
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If you can’t find the windmill things you could use any old cd/dvd’s tied to sticks, shiny, twirling stuff can be off putting.
Thanks both for the windmill tips. Shall try them.
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My experience of them has been that they were totally ineffecive. At one point I did wonder if we had party-going moles as they seemed to increase if anything and I thought they might be enjoying the vibrations!
Equally, we tried the smoke pellet things, to no avail, the slabs of something that I think were meant to be deterrents - they seemed to eat those with no ill effects.
In the end, the only thing that was at all effective was munitions - “Detaupeur” if I remember rightly. I even smuggled one into the UK for a friend who was getting desperate about the state of their croquet lawn (yes, I know, but that’s the Cotswolds for you).
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Well the packet of nematodes with which to treat the lawn to get rid of the grubs has arrived .
It was supplied by a German company with the slightly unfortunate name of E-Nema…
Luckily the instructions say to point the sprayer away from yourself when applying the liquid.
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Have you determined the type of grub or slug pesty / beastie you are looking to kill in the soil nematodes are selective. There isn’t a all in one nematode.
No - I didn’t realise until after I had ordered them that they made different flavours of nematode. I got a pack which turns out to be for chafer beetles, so we will see how chafed they get.
If we actually have crane flies, wombats or tiny demons from the Seventh Circle of Hell it may be back to the drawing board.
Well there should be - clearly these biologists are slacking off on the job 
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If your brock is digging up earth worms nematodes don’t work.
Best leave nature to do its stuff without interfering
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Oh well we shall see. I have seen no evidence of what it might have been looking for, unfortunately.
Maybe drinking a lot of coffee and stepping up Operation Urinal to fever pitch is the answer.
Trouble is the garden is completely open access at the front so unless I put in an expensive and ugly fence I can’t control it all.
I may have to wait for the bloody thing to go off and hibernate…
They are under effaroucheur solaire and dissuadeur solaire on Lidl.fr. A model not showing did get higher ratings than the two currently showing and might come back. They are around the 7 or 8 Euro mark usually.
And they leave whopping great poos in the holes. We had one but he or she has moved on since we let the terriers out at night.
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Yes badgers were never an issue when my parents had dogs (but also at that stage there was very little lawn in the garden for them to dig in - mostly areas of planting).
I have done the nematode spray so we’ll see if that helps. I’ve also ordered some solar-powered motion detector lights which may also deter the little barsteward(s).
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