Should I cut a gate?
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Hi there, I saw a hedgehog in my garden last night (yippee!) but I am quite surprised as it is a fully walled garden. I have a side gate with a. 2 inch gap under it.
Should I cut a bigger hole in the side gate?
The reason I am hesitating to is because I live in a busy road. To access other gardens the hog might have to cross the road so this feels potentially dangerous.
They seemed big and healthy and it was evening time. I have w very big garden with wild areas connected to lots of other big gardens. Just not sure how he has traversed them all. There is thick Ivy on stone walls.
Please let me know whether cutting a hole that leads to the front and the road might potentially be more danger than good.
Hi Carolineno,
A good question!
I’ve watched a small hedgehog squeeze (with much effort!) through a 5cm wide by 7cm tall gap at the bottom of my garden’s wooden side door – quite a lot smaller than the recommended 13cm x 13cm hole for comfortable access! I faced the same question because the side door has a road on one side and a vast green space (gardens and school playing field) on the other side.
Finding out whether the road side of your gate has hedgehogs (eg, using a trail camera) might help with your hole-cutting decision? Also, a thorough check that there are no tunnels or other gaps in your garden walls (perhaps hidden by ivy) would be useful.
My garden has a small population of regular hedgehog visitors but I’ve only seen one instance of a hedgehog transiting the side gate – so I decided not to enlarge the gap (for the same road safety reason as you stated). If you have more hedgehogs on the road side than in the garden then a larger gap might be ok.
Hope you see more happy hedgehogs in your nice safe garden!
Sam_
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