My neighbours are all gardening!
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I’ve been lucky enough to have hedgehogs visit my garden for many years now.
So many of my neighbours are getting their strimmers and lawnmowers out at the moment, but each time I hear a strimmer start up I worry.
Is there such a thing as a ‘Hedgehog active area, be wary when gardening ‘ poster??Hi Sjssbs22
I know what you mean re. strimmers. I have had two hogs in the past which came to my garden with bad strimmer injuries. The first had to be put down by a vet. The second survived, but only by spending months at a wildlife hospital with the dedicated care of the people there. Despite her surviving that was inevitably a serious break in her normal development which obviously impacted her life. Needless to say, I hate the sound of strimmers!
Realistically, people are not going to stop using them, but if they took a bit more care, i.e. checking for hogs and other animals first, in an area to be strimmed or even mown, that would be helpful and could save lives.
If you go to ‘My Hedgehog Street’, there are some posters there (click on ‘My Hedgehog Street’ above right and then ‘Free downloadable resources’). There are also various posters on the BHPS site (click on the BHPS logo at the top of this page, then click on information and there is a dropdown list of posters and leaflets). Well worth a look.
Good luck and happy hog watching.
I have heard anecdotally of a garden equipment sales/hire firm which includes leaflets about wildlife care with its strimmers. Not sure where they are but sounds like a good approach. The local council here in Highland strim the green lane behind my street once or twice a year. I was worried about this as it gets wonderfully overgrown in places and I know that the local hedgehogs use it to access the gardens – on the last occasion I did approach the person and they said they would keep a look out.
Hi Mags63
Yes, people usually say they will keep a look out, but I’m not sure how carefully. I live near a railway and have on many occasions in the past contacted them when they have notified their ‘neighbours’ that they were doing vegetation clearing. They always say they will keep a look out do an ecological survey, etc. but when you see them doing the work there is no sign that they check the vegetation just before work commences. If they have done one the day before the hogs could have moved. Part of the problem is that hedgehogs are not a protected species which means they don’t have to try as hard as they would if they were protected.
But re. notification about wildlife care for strimmers, see:
https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/hedgehog-heroes-roll-honour/hi Nic, The council here has a Biodiversity Action Plan which identifies hedgehogs as one of the priority species; in fact the ranger service ran a few zoom sessions during the winter about mammals on the priority list including hedgehogs. But another part of the same organisation sends out the strimmers. Might be worth contacting them after the elections.
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