Its hedgehog awareness week. We know that nature and wildlife has been proven to have a profound effect on our health, well being as well as keeping our ecosystem healthy even more so now than ever. Hedgehogs are such an iconic and important part of British wildlife but are sadly now in decline due to an increase in traffic, agriculture, the way we are now designing gardens with decking and paving and the reduction of plants, crucial undergrowth and the use of pesticides and poisons. how to attract hedgehogs into your garden
To help protect hedgehogs below are some top tips on how you could help the hedgehogs and encourage them into your garden. Let’s keep hedgehogs happy and thriving in our gardens and in the countryside for now and future generations to come.
how to protect and attract hedgehogs into your garden
Ways you can help hedgehogs
- Create a wild corner in your garden which will offer shelter, protection and food for hedgehogs and other wildlife.
- Avoid using pesticides and slug pellets in your garden. Not only do these harm the hedgehogs but also damage the food chain.
- Provide a shallow dish of fresh water and food such as meat based cat or dog food or chopped unsalted peanuts, especially during long dry spells.
- Make or buy a hedgehog home, it may be used as a hibernation site for the winter months or as a nesting box for a mummy hedgehog and her hoglets in the warmer months.
- Make sure hedgehogs have easy access in and out of your garden by having a 13cm x 13cm gap in your boundary wall or fence allowing a hedgehog highway. Once created you can log these on the BIG Hedgehog Map at www.bighedgehogmap.org
- Check for hedgehogs before strimming or mowing.
- Dispose of litter. Every year hedgehogs get injured or trapped in rubbish.
- Check bonfires before they are lit as these are a perfect home for a hedgehog and other wildlife.
- Hedgehogs are good swimmers but can get trapped in ponds or pools with sheer sides. Keep water levels up and provide a gently sloping edge or place half submerged rocks in the water.
- Take care on roads, hedgehogs are nocturnal so are often seen at night. A hedgehogs natural defence is to roll up into a ball – this is no match for a motor vehicle!
With busy lives and technology taking over it is easy to forget the beauty of the outside world and appreciate the importance of nature is for us and for future generations to enjoy, protect and cherish.
Keep hedgehogs happy with garden wildlife direct.
khaki hedgehog back pack made from recycled plastic bottles
Love hedgehogs? Check out our hedgehog collection here I’m a hedgehog lover
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