Attracting Hedgehogs into Your Garden Safely

Why Hedgehogs Need a Helping Hand

A hedgehog ambling across the lawn at dusk is one of the great quiet pleasures of British country living. It is also, sadly, becoming rarer. Numbers have fallen steeply over the past two decades, and the reasons are mostly ordinary: tidy gardens, sealed boundaries, busy roads and a shortage of insects. A single hedgehog may roam a kilometre or more in a night, so an isolated garden — however lovely — is of limited use unless it connects to others.

The good news is that everything a hedgehog needs is cheap, simple and often already at hand. Give it a way in, a drink, something to eat and somewhere to sleep, and you may find yourself hosting the same animal for years. Here is how to do it safely.

Open Up a Hedgehog Highway

Fences and walls are the single biggest barrier. The fix is a gap roughly 13cm square — about the size of a CD case — cut into the base of a fence panel, a gravel board or a low brick wall. Hedgehogs are surprisingly flexible and will happily squeeze through a gap that a cat would find snug.

• Cut or remove a small section at ground level, leaving a clear run with no lip or step.
• Do the same in gates, or leave a gap of a few centimetres under them.
• Speak to your neighbours. A series of linked gardens along one side of a street creates a genuine route.
• Mark the gap with a small stone or a little sign so it does not get blocked by the next delivery of gravel or a new flower bed.

If you have a solid wall, lifting a couple of bricks at the base works just as well. Do check with your neighbour first if the wall is shared — a friendly chat over the hedge is part of the fun.

Food and Water Done Properly

Hedgehogs are insectivores, not dustbin scavengers. Most of their natural diet is beetles, caterpillars, earthworms and the odd slug, so the best thing you can do is leave a wilder corner where soil life can thrive.

If you want to put food out, keep it simple and correct:

• Never offer bread and milk. It causes diarrhoea and dehydration and has killed a great many hedgehogs over the years.
• Offer meat-based cat or dog food — chicken or turkey flavour, in jelly rather than gravy, and never fish.
• Mealworms are a treat, not a meal. Fed in quantity they can cause serious bone problems.
• Put food out after dusk under a weighted cover or in a feeding station to keep cats, foxes and rats away, and clear leftovers each morning.
• Water matters more than food. A shallow saucer just two or three centimetres deep, with a few pebbles in it for grip, is ideal. Refresh it daily, especially in hot spells.

Steep-sided ponds and water butts are genuine death traps. A gently sloping edge or a ramp of stones and timber gives a hedgehog a way out.

A Quiet Corner for Hibernation

Hedgehogs hibernate roughly from November to March, though they wake periodically and may shift beds. They need a dry, sheltered, undisturbed spot with plenty of insulation.

• Leave a leaf pile in a corner and resist the urge to tidy it.
• A loose stack of logs and prunings makes excellent cover, as does an established compost heap.
• A purpose-built hedgehog house should sit in a quiet spot, out of the prevailing wind, with the entrance facing away from the weather. Cover the roof with dry leaves and bark.
• Do not disturb a hibernating hedgehog, and never turn a compost heap between November and March without checking it carefully first.

Hedgehogs need to reach around 600–700g by autumn to survive the winter. If you see a small one out in daylight late in the year, it is likely in trouble and needs help from a local wildlife rescue.

Hidden Hazards to Check Before You Work

Most garden injuries to hedgehogs are entirely preventable, and they almost always happen during routine jobs.

• Slug pellets. Avoid them altogether. Hedgehogs eat affected slugs and can be poisoned, and the pellets also remove the beetles and worms they depend on. Use nematodes, hand-picking after rain, or simply tolerate a few holes in the hostas.
• Bonfires. Build the pile on the day you intend to burn it, or move it to a new spot first. Check with a torch and listen for a huffing sound before lighting.
• Strimmers and mowers. Long grass, especially at the base of hedges, is prime nesting cover. Walk it over first, and cut from the centre outwards.
• Netting. Fruit netting, pea netting and football goals tangle hedgehogs badly. Peg netting up at least 30cm from the ground, or swap to rigid mesh.
• Holes and drains. Cover or slope the sides of any steep-sided pit, and check sheds and garages before closing doors for the night.

One reassurance: hedgehog fleas are host-specific and will not infest your pets or your home.

Living With the Seasons

Gardening with hedgehogs in mind is really just gardening a little less tidily. In spring, keep water topped up as animals emerge hungry from hibernation. Through summer, leave nesting cover and check before strimming. In autumn, pile leaves rather than bagging them, and let the hedgehog put on weight undisturbed. In winter, leave the quiet corner alone.

Do that, and you will have done more for these gentle, ancient creatures than any amount of fancy bird seed ever could.