Supporting hedgehogs in your garden

Hedgehog friendly gardens

Hedgehog safety in your garden:

frequent hedgehog killers

Check before you mow or strim
Hedgehogs sleep in high grass and compost heaps. Strimmers, mowers and garden forks can cause awful injuries.

Chemicals kill hedgehogs
Slug pellets, weed killers, insecticides, rat poison - they all can kill hedgehogs. Use alternatives for slug control, which you can find here: Learn more

Don't burn a hedgehog!
For any pre-built fire, check before you light it. Hedgehogs will use the branch pile as a nesting opportunity. Using an incinerator? Check it is intact.

Don't trap hedgehogs

Cover drains, holes and light wells
Hedgehogs easily topple over if they try to explore a hole in the ground. Cover drains with boards, secure basement windows with fencing.

Create hedgehog ladders
If you have different levels to your garden, a hedgehog may fall from one level to the other. Create steps for them to get out (depth: 20cm max).

Secure your pond
Hedgehogs can swim, but they need to be able to climb out if they fall into your pond. Add a ramp or stepping stones. Keep the pond topped up.

Careful with chain fences, netting, litter

Netting and football goals
Any netting has to be hung 30cm above ground. Check your veggie patch and hang all netting high! Roll up football goals at night.

Secure chain fences
If your fence has gaps between 5-13cm a hedgehog can get trapped. Secure the lower parts with a fine mesh panel (not netting!).

Remove litter and builders' rubbish
Hedgehogs can get injured by rubbish, and they tend to nest under tarps, in black bin bags, and under timber. Don't toss anything out without checking.

Hedgehog Highways

Hedgehogs travel 1-3 kilometres each night to find food or a mate, often visiting 20-30 gardens.

You can make their life much easier and keep them away from the road by drilling a small hole into your fence, ideally on both sides and the back of your garden (13cm square).

Please also talk to your neighbours and engage them to drill some holes as well - creating a Hedgehog Highway of interconnected gardens.

If you are planning to replace your fencing, you can buy fence elements or concrete gravel boards with ready-made Hedgehog Highway holes.
For wire fences, install a clay tube and layer it with soil or leaves. That also applies if there is electric wiring behind your fence (dig under the fence and add a tube).

Worried about attracting cats or rats to your garden?
Don't worry, if they want to visit your garden they find a way in anyway, climbing over the highest fences...

Garden features to support hedgehogs

Leave a part of your garden wild

Wild corners provide shelter, nesting materials (dry grasses and leaves), and food (insects, earth worms) for hedgehogs.

How to do it

Choose a shady corner and just let the grass grow, plant some low growing bushes and native plants.
Keep this part a bit humid. In dry weather, make sure to water this corner so that the ground does not fully dry out.
You can toss in some old terracotta pots or branches to make the area more interesting for wildlife. Caution: Nothing sharp.
If there is long grass, you may want to cut this once or twice a year, but check before you mow, and only use a high-set mower or hand shears.

Important

Tell family members and any professional gardeners you employ to leave this area alone.
If you ever decide to change it, check for sleeping or nesting hedgehogs!

Add some log piles or branches

Graphics copyright Albert Koechlin Stiftung, Switzerland

Log piles provide shelter and nesting opportunities, and they are home to many insects that a hedgehog can eat.

How to do it

Choose a sheltered position, in an area where there won't be any flooding in heavy rain.
Use a few logs or large rocks to create some inner gaps, then loosely toss branches and leaves over it.
Make sure that the pile won't easily collapse in a storm, or if a fox jumps on it.
If you like, you can build an inner structure of long fire-wood pieces, creating a 'living room' of about 40x40cm and a few exit routes. Then add the branches.

Important

If you add some old timber, that is fine. But make sure that there are no nails, wires, or anything else attached that could injure or trap a hedgehog.

Arrange planters as hedgehog 'runways'

Garden features, such as large flower pots, planters, and even statues can be arranged in a way that they provide a safe 'runway' for hedgehogs. This is also an ideal place to toss a few cat kibbles, if you like to feed hedgehogs.

How to do it:

Move large garden features away from the walls or fences a bit, to create a hedgehog-sized runway. Or place them in a circle with safe space in between.
Pots need to be at least 13cm apart so that a hedgehog can fit through.
Don't make the gaps too wide, so foxes can't get in.

Add lots of water sources

Putting out water in shallow dishes is likely the single best thing you can do for hedgehogs in your garden.

How to do it

Use several dishes and put them in sheltered areas of the garden.
Keep them clean and the water topped up; wash and refill them daily..
Water dishes are especially important near your pond, so that the hedgehog is not tempted to try to drink from the pond and fall in.

NOTE: We don't recommend feeding hedgehogs in your garden every day of the year, as this can cause a variety of health problems (obesity, tartar on teeth, overgrown claws, kidney problems, and the spreading of the new hedgehog virus (Arterivirus). Learn more about feeding.

Don't overdo the garden clear up - especially in Autumn

Hedgehogs need earth-worms and insects to survive, specially in Autumn, before they hibernate in December. And they use dried leaves and grass to build their nests.

Don't clear out all the autumn leaves. You can leave some on the grass (they won't damage it), or rake them together into leaf piles along the edges. Don't cut dried-out stems, seed pods or ornamental grass until Spring.
This helps your garden, too: Dried leaves and plant debris provide critical overwintering habitat for earth-worms, pollinators and beneficial predators such as ladybirds, lacewings and ground beetles that control pest population in Spring.

Long dried stems and seed pods feed many birds, such as sparrows and finches. Piles of autumn leaves can give a home to toads, frogs and slow worms, who all will eat your slugs in Spring. So, if you like a wildlife garden; don't be overly tidy!

Hedgehog lodges

Make sure your hedgehog house is the right size: 30x40cm minimum inner space, if there is an access tunnel. Without a tunnel, the inner space should be even larger. This is important for maternity nests: all hoglets need to fit in securely, and a mum can have up to eight!

Place it in a sheltered spot in the shade, with no risk of flooding. Keep it as natural as possible - cover it with leaves or branches.

For extra protection from heavy rain or predators, you can put it under a small garden table or add a tarp. Make sure there is airflow, so no risk of mould.

Put some straw or dry leaves in the lodge and in the surrounding areas. Do not use hay, it gets stuck in their spikes and gets mouldy when wet.

Never put food in the hedgehog house; keep lodging and food strictly separated.

Some hedgehog houses are not safe

Basket-style houses contain wire constructions which can trap a hedgehog as the basket disintegrates. Some have pieces of wire sticking out.
In wooden houses, check for any nails or screws that are not secured.

Thinking about building a hog house?

You can find instructions on the page of the British Hedgehog Preservation society.

Learn more