If you’ve just installed a new backyard pond or moved to a new house that has a pond, you must be curious to know how your pet hedgehog behaves around the pond. Or you want to get rid of the Hedgehogs that has been coming to your house pond for long. There are a few steps you need to take to keep a Hedgehog far away from the pond.
Placing a predator decoy is an excellent way to prevent a Hedgehog from ruining your pond. You can also net your pond or even fence the perimeter of the pond to keep the Hedgehogs away. Besides these, water sprinklers, and ultrasonic repellers also work great in keeping the Hedgehogs away.
While some Hedgheogs will ruin your pond and try to catch the fish, others will just try to drink water from the pond. Be it any case, it is important to keep the Hedgehogs away from your pond.
In this article, we will discuss some basic strategies to keep a Hedgehog away from the pond.
How To Keep Hedgehogs Out Of A Pond?
It is illegal to kill or trap a Hedgehog because it is a protected animal species. However, we can scare or deter them by preventing them from destroying our pond or eating our fish. We can follow the methods listed below to do that:
Predator Decoys
One of the most popular and easiest ways to drive Hedgehogs away is to plant a decoy in your pond. You can use plastic lures for the process. The decoys will help to deter the Hedgehogs.
An alligator decoy is the best option to keep the Hedgehogs away. Alligator decoys are designed based on swimming through the water to hunt their prey. Alligators are dangerous predators to hedgehogs. Therefore, this method can work for preventing hedgehogs from eating your pond fish.
You can put these alligator decoys around your pond, from where the Hedgehogs usually come, which will scare them off.
Net Your Ponds
Pond net covers are yet another way to prevent Hedgehogs from entering your pond. It is one of the simplest methods.
Besides letting your Hedgehogs enter your pond, it will also protect the fishes in your pond from jumping outside. Now, your Hedgehogs will not have any physical contact with the fish.
You can use the pond covers in both floating or raised forms. Both methods will work as long as you take good care of the netting and maintain it properly. In most cases, individuals prefer a floating net. It is because it is more discreet than the raising type.
Cover your pond with pond netting, keep the net tight across the pond, and hover it a few inches above your pond water surface is the best way to do pond netting. By doing this, any leaves that fall on the net will not be touching the pond water and polluting it. Instead, those leaves will stay high and dry.
Ensure that you cover the whole pond water surface area with the net because even a tiny gap will be enough for hedgehogs to get into the pond.
If Hedgehogs get used to the environment, other deterrents such as decoy predators become less effective. In addition, pond netting creates a physical barrier between the Hedgehog and the pond. Therefore, if you plan to install pond netting carefully, you might save your pond from the hedgehogs with proper maintenance.
Fence Your Pond
One can even fence their pond to keep the Hedgehogs away. All you need to do is install pond fencing around the pond’s perimeter. It will stop the Hedgehogs from getting into the pond.
You must leave minimum spacing between the fences so that Hedgehogs do not pass through them. People even use wires for covering the perimeter of the pond like fencing.
You must also be aware that fencing is hard to maintain compared to other deterrents. Also, fences are more noticeable, whereas, if you are using wires, it will be adequate to stop predators, but they are not very distracting visually.
Water Sprinklers
Sometimes water sprinklers also proves an effective method to keep away the Hedgheogs. Basically, water sprinklers give a shock or a spook to the Hedgehogs. The automatic sprinklers can be placed in the garden to scare away the Hedgehogs.
You need to place automatic water sprinklers around the perimeter of your pond from where Hedgehogs usually come form. Whenvever A Hedgehog will come near the sprinkler, it will detect the hedgehog’s movement with sensors and start spraying water at them. This will scare them off well.
Ultrasonic Repeller
Just like the automatic water sprinklers, ultrasonic repellers will also scare the Hedgehogs away from your pond. These ultrasonic repellers work using sensors and speakers.
These ultrasonic repellers produce a sudden sound to scare away the Hedgehogs. There are two types of ultrasonic animals repellers, low-pitched ultrasonic devices and sound recordings.
On the one and, low-pitched ultrasonic devices produce sounds that humans won’t hear, these sound waves are picked by animals. On the other hand, sound recording ultrasonic repellers are stored with a loud noise like gunshots to which animals are naturally wary about.
Whenever a moving particle approaches these devices, it’ll create a loud noise and scare them away. This method is not very popular and can come out with multiple downsides. But if you want to try this method, it’s worth a shot.
Reflecting Mirrors And Flags
Reflectors, flags, or mirrors can be used to scare away the Hedgehogs and guard the pond. This method works best in small garden ponds.
Mirrors should be placed around the perimeter of the pond, from where the Hedgehogs come. They will scare themselves away from your pond, when they’ll see themselves in the mirror approaching the position.
You can even use flags with a picture of some higher-level predators that will scare the Hedgehogs too. You can combine both mirrors and flags, that’ll help to deter Hedgehogs more effectively.
Now a days, a new and upgraded method is used to deterrent the Hedgehogs, laser technique. When these deterrents detect movements around your pond, it will create bright flashes and startling sounds to scare the nearby Hedgehogs. This method is effective and getting popular for hedgehog-proofing a pond.
Avoid Things That Attracts Hedgehogs
You must keep in mind a few things to ensure that you are not attracting any Hedgehog to your pond. Listed below are a few pointers that you must take care of:
- You must use various deterrents to guard the perimeter of the pond in a proper manner. Do not make the water surfaces easily accessible for the Hedgehogs.
- You must not have a pond with a clear all-round view. This will make it easy for the Hedgehogs to spot the pond. Try to make the area enclosed with plants or concrete.
- Make sure that the water level of the pond is not too close to the top of the bank. Having a vertical sided pond will also work.
- If the water of the pond is too calm and clear, Hedgehogs will be tempted to look for fish from the pond. You can install a fountain to create some constant waves. The Hedgehogs will then be reluctant to get down to the pond due to the waves.
- Do not overflow your pond with fish. It will just attract more Hedgehogs to your pond.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Do Hedgehogs Drown In Garden Ponds?
Although Hedgehogs are great swimmers, they can surely drown in garden ponds. Hedgehogs cannot sustain water for too long. Therefore, if they are not rescued, they might drown.
How Do You Make A Ramp For A Pond For Hedgehogs?
Most Hedgehogs can easily climb ramps. However, due to their round body structure, sometimes it becomes difficult for them to grip such steep surfaces.
If you plan to provide a Hedgehog with a ramp, you need to make sure that the ramp is completely safe for your pet to use. Listed below are a few things that you must keep in mind before providing ramps to your pet:
- The material you use for the ramp must be completely safe for the Hedgehog
- Make sure that the ramp does not have any sharp edges
- Do not keep the ramp too steep
- The ramp should be wide enough
- Secure the ramp using wires or PVC pipes
- The ramp should be sturdy and not move when the Hedgehog uses them
