Why Hedgehogs Need Your Help

Hedgehogs are in trouble. Britain's favourite garden visitor has been declining for decades, with rural populations falling sharply and even suburban numbers under pressure. The reasons are familiar: tidy gardens, sealed fences, busy roads, chemicals and a loss of the rough, scruffy corners they depend on.

The good news is that ordinary suburban gardens have become something of a stronghold. A hedgehog may travel a mile or two in a single night, wandering from garden to garden in search of beetles, slugs, worms and caterpillars. No single plot is enough on its own. What matters is whether the gardens on your street join up — and that is something you can influence directly, starting this weekend.

Create a Hedgehog Highway

The single most useful thing you can do is cut a gap in your boundary. A hole roughly 13cm square (about five inches) is plenty for a hedgehog to pass through, but small enough to discourage most cats and foxes. One gap in a fence or wall, positioned at ground level, reconnects your garden to your neighbour's.

• Cut a notch out of a gravel board or the bottom of a fence panel, or lift a brick from a low wall.
• If you have concrete or metal edging, leave a deliberate gap rather than running it right up to the fence.
• Keep the gap clear — leaves, soil and debris soon block a low opening.
• Talk to your neighbours. Two or three households doing the same thing creates a genuine route through the street.

If you rent, a discreet gap is usually easy to agree with a landlord, particularly if you explain that it helps control slugs without chemicals.

Put the Slug Pellets Away

Slug pellets are one of the worst things a hedgehog can encounter. Hedgehogs hoover up slugs and snails, and they will readily eat pellets too, along with poisoned slugs. Metaldehyde-based pellets have been withdrawn from outdoor use in the UK, but old tubs still lurk in sheds, and they should go to a household waste site rather than down the garden.

Even products marketed as wildlife-friendly deserve caution. Ferric phosphate pellets are far less directly toxic, but they still reduce the slugs and snails that hedgehogs rely on, and the trade-off is rarely worth it. The same goes for rat poison, insect sprays and weedkillers — all of them thin out the invertebrate life that makes a garden worth visiting.

Instead, try hand-picking slugs at dusk, setting beer traps sunk into the soil, or applying nematodes to damp beds. Encourage frogs, ground beetles and song thrushes by leaving some cover and a shallow dish of water. The hedgehog will do a good share of the work itself, given half a chance.

Build a Leaf Pile and a Wild Corner

Hedgehogs need somewhere to sleep, nest and hibernate. A leaf pile left in a quiet corner is ideal — gathered in autumn and left alone until late spring. Don't tidy it, don't turn it, and don't set fire to it.

• Pile fallen leaves behind a shed or under a hedge, then cover them with a sheet of board or a layer of twigs to stop them blowing away.
• Stack logs and prunings loosely; the gaps make perfect daytime nests.
• Leave a patch of long grass unmown through summer and winter.
• Let a compost heap sit undisturbed — though always check with a fork handle before turning it.

A simple hedgehog house works well too: a wooden box with a short tunnel entrance and a 13cm opening, placed in shade and covered with leaves. Position it against a wall or fence, away from the prevailing wind, and resist the urge to peek inside between November and March.

Food and Water

Hedgehogs are perfectly capable of feeding themselves, but a little supplementary food helps them through lean spells, particularly in late summer when they need to build up weight before winter.

• Offer: meaty cat or dog food (kitten or senior varieties are fine), chopped unsalted peanuts, and a few sultanas. Hedgehog biscuits are widely available.
• Avoid: milk and bread, which cause diarrhoea, and large quantities of mealworms, which are low in calcium.
• Always: put out fresh water in a shallow dish, especially in hot, dry weather.

Feed at dusk, clean the dish each morning, and don't put out more than the hedgehogs will clear — leftovers attract rats. If a hedgehog becomes reliant on your food and stops foraging, cut back.

Keep the Highway Safe

Once hedgehogs are moving through your garden, a few simple precautions keep them alive and well.

• Check long grass before strimming or mowing.
• Build bonfires on the day you light them, never in advance.
• Fit a ramp or gentle slope to any pond so hedgehogs can climb out.
• Keep netting pegged up at least 30cm above the ground.
• Cover drains, window wells and any deep gaps beside decking.

If you see a hedgehog out in daylight, it is usually in trouble — contact a local hedgehog rescue for advice. An adult weighing under 600g in late autumn may also need a helping hand.

Do these things and you are not just helping one animal. You are joining a quiet network of gardens that lets hedgehogs move, feed and breed right across your neighbourhood — and that is exactly what they need.