Where are they?

[Leon Roskilly]

Towards the latter part of Summer 2018, I put in 3 hedgehog houses that became occupied not long after.

The old straw across the entrance trick showed them in use through the winter until the Spring when, with the residents emerged from hibernation and no signs of re-entry for a few days, I took the boxes out of their winter insulation and cover, and gave them a good clean out with nothing more than boiling water, then when dry I put them back with just a handful of straw.

Since then they seem to have been abandoned 🙁

I’m still getting plenty of sightings of hedgehogs on the trail-cam, and visits to the 3 feeding stations.

I also know of one ‘irregular’ nest between the ‘habitat’ pile and fence base that has been regularly used.

I’m guessing that they have their own nest sites in the neighbourhood that they prefer rather than my hog-houses.

I’m just wondering why.

Maybe having been used for hibernation, even though cleaned and refreshed, the hogs will avoid them now.

Perhaps I should relocate them to another site?

Or just wait for this year’s juveniles to discover them?

[Nic]

Hi Leon

If you think of how a hog would be with a wild nest – i.e. wouldn’t use it again, probably to avoid parasites, such as fleas and ticks – it isn’t surprising that they don’t immediately use the boxes again. Despite our efforts of cleaning them out.

However, if I were you I would leave them where they are for a while. Some hogs wait until they become ‘part of the furniture’ before they use them, and you never know, a hog might be planning on moving in any time. I think you were lucky last time round that someone moved in so quickly.

Good luck

[Author]

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