Foxes Too Near, What To Do If A Fox Approaches You
When A Fox Gets Too Close, What Do You Expect To Happen?
What to do if a fox approaches you – leave it alone. Ah, but that is a simple answer to a sometimes-complicated problem. Perhaps a fox is causing trouble around your home, killing chickens, or even one of your pets. Maybe having one nearby makes you nervous, and that hinders your sleep. Or, for some undefined reason, a local fox gets aggressive and comes directly at you. Whoa! The bad problem now. Something is not right. But before getting all keyed up about rabid foxes and vicious attacks, consider the normal behavior of foxes.
Foxes Around The Home, A General Rule of Their Behavior
By nature, if left alone most foxes are harmless to humans. However, they can cause considerable harm to chickens, ducks, and the smaller pets that are popular in Anne Arundel County, Carroll County, Howard County, and throughout Maryland as well as several neighboring states. Foxes typically eat birds, eggs, fruit, insects, mice, rabbits, and such. They also sometimes take to a bit of carrion. As such, they usually cause minimal problems for home gardeners, hikers, and kids. However, if foxes are in the area and you raise the likes of chickens or ducks, or small pets, precautions, and preventative measures are necessary. If there is an available and unguarded nourishment supply chain, do not be surprised when a fox takes advantage of the opportunity.
Some Simple Reasons Why Foxes Approach Humans
Although most foxes only cause minor troubles, many Maryland homeowners rather fox not get near their house. Such concerns are easy enough to understand. If a red fox lives under your porch, you must worry all the more about what to do if a fox approaches you. Other things that might draw foxes nearer to the living quarters of humans, suburban areas, and in the city, include:
- Bird feeders
- Compost piles
- Easy access to outbuildings, crawlspaces, decks, and under the porch
- Fruit trees
- Standing cat and dog food
- Open trashcans
Familiarity breeds contact. By nature, foxes avoid humans. But when permitted to dwell too near, too often, and with easy access to a food source or comfort zone, a fox, like almost any creature, will cease to fear the human.
- Do not be tempted to make friends with the local fox
- Contact with any wild animal can end up in a bad situation – What to do if a fox approaches you?
- Foxes host parasites
- When feeling threatened, foxes can get aggressive
If one comes around and hangs around, it is better to get him or her away from your home. However, trapping foxes is difficult, dangerous, and typically requires a permit. Rather than the fox approaching you, you would be approaching it.
One Final Reason That You Should Know What To Do When A Fox Approaches You
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, skunks, raccoons, and foxes are the U.S. terrestrial carnivores most often infected with rabies. As such, any bite by foxes may include exposure to the rabies virus. This does not mean that rabies is rampant among foxes. In 2017, the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association responded to 1,799 fox-related rabies testing. Only seventeen percent came back with positive results, a figure that plays out significantly lower than the mean percentage of the previous five years.
What to if a fox approaches you – leave it alone.
Let Mid-Atlantic Wildlife Control resources control the risks. We protect your poultry, clean up the waste, sanitize, and install exclusion barriers. And we do it with humane care and respect for foxes. Do not hazard the bite of a fox. Contact your local branch of Mid-Atlantic Wildlife Control today by dialing [Direct]. Our team is prepared, skilled, and ready to get the fox out of your hair.