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A Hedgehog in the Vegetable Garden:My Tips for Attracting and Installing it Durably!

A Hedgehog in the Vegetable Garden:My Tips for Attracting and Installing it Durably!

Hedgehogs suck, right?

Not only is it cute, but it's the best slug killer I know.

And unless you sow your salads to raise snails and slugs...

You'll love learning how to attract a hedgehog to the vegetable garden and install it permanently!

A Hedgehog in the Vegetable Garden:My Tips for Attracting and Installing it Durably!

Contents
  • This quiet little hedgehog has a secret garden!
  • A pile of wood for the winter is essential!
  • Food and drink at will the rest of the year!
  • Warning, danger!
  • How to promote the installation of a female hedgehog?
  • Savings

This quiet little hedgehog has a secret garden!

One evening in March last year, I found my dog ​​nose to nose with a prickly ball.

I quickly realized that I was dealing with a very young hedgehog !

He must have been walking in my garden, recently out of hibernation in search of food.

But where did he come from? Mystery!

A Hedgehog in the Vegetable Garden:My Tips for Attracting and Installing it Durably!

A pile of wood for the winter is essential for him!

Involuntarily, by piling up some branches under his lean-to, my neighbor had set up a gigantic hideout and he had to hibernate under there .

In short, he must have loved my garden:a good restaurant and a great place for his future family, open to the world.

Discreet, nocturnal, shy, suspicious and harmless, the hedgehog lives on a large area (2 to 5 ha for the female, 6 to 10 ha for the male) and its habitats are very varied (beds, hedges, bushes, compost leaves, pile of wood...).

This kid must have come through a hole under my fence. So I left the hole open , so that he can leave as he pleases.

A Hedgehog in the Vegetable Garden:My Tips for Attracting and Installing it Durably!

Food and drink at will the rest of the year!

Now that he was there, I searched for how to make him stay there ! Our hedgehog loves crunchy things:slugs, snails or earthworms.

On a plate, in a dark place protected from cats, I put cat food.

From March to June, I gave each evening 1 to 3 spoonfuls of mash . I resumed this rhythm at the end of October, so that the young were fat enough to hibernate.

A Hedgehog in the Vegetable Garden:My Tips for Attracting and Installing it Durably!

Attention, danger!

The hedgehog fears all dairy products. No milk, no cheese, no yoghurt for him .

Neither mare neither swimming pool at ground level in my house. Otherwise, I would have put on a floating board to avoid drowning and a piece of wire mesh to get out on my own.

The hedgehog can be thirsty in the summer, fall in and drown in it.

And since I hate chemicals, the anti-slug has long since deserted my garden.

I avoided beer because it attracts hedgehogs who can't stand alcohol and they drown in it trying to catch slugs...

A Hedgehog in the Vegetable Garden:My Tips for Attracting and Installing it Durably!

How to promote the installation of a female hedgehog?

Autumn , with its rains, is conducive to the growth of crisp and tasty salads, but also to the invasion of slugs , snails , and other pests .

I use this organic secret to prevent them from chewing on them, without harming my insatiable hedgehogs!

To keep Mama Hedgehog for several years, as soon as the cold gets sharp again, I take out the cat food and fed the family, expanded since the end of May, until they hibernate again.

Result, in October, my vegetable garden gave me beautiful salads. All this , respecting the environment and my new tenants!

And Maman Hérisson came back the following spring for my greatest happiness and the health of my vegetable garden!

Savings achieved

Having a family of hedgehogs in my vegetable garden has saved me the loss of a third of my salads meaning a significant amount of money saved and less waste thrown away.

A salad is €1:for my twenty salads, that's a saving of €6.50!

Considering that I did not use products against slugs, I saved at least the price of two packs of product over the season! That's an additional saving of €24!

Effective and inexpensive, my natural anti-slug is the hedgehog!