Badgers

[USER1999]

I played chiltern forest recently, and their 16th fairway had been trashed by badgers removing the turf. Around 100 yards of it. This weekend my club, west herts, has also been trashed. The greenskeepers mended a whopping amount of damage on Friday, only for it to be made worse on Friday night. Today the amount of damage was shocking.They are a protected species, fair enough, but we have never had badger damage before this weekend. Any idea why the blighters are going mad wrecking courses this year?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Are you sure it's badgers?

 

[philly169]

we have a hole called badger alley, it has a badger set in one of the hazard areas... never seen one though, nor seen any damage by one.. its the geese that get me!! leaving all their muck all over the course.... grrr

 

[USER1999]

It's either that or people stealing turf, and I'm going with badgers.

Foxes dig holes, badgers remove turf, and roll it up like its done with a machine. Cunning little bluggers.

 

[DCB]

Weather will have played a part Murph. Soft wet soil and lots of earthworms makes it easy pickings for the badgers.

 

[USER1999]

we have a hole called badger alley, it has a badger set in one of the hazard areas... never seen one though, nor seen any damage by one.. its the geese that get me!! leaving all their muck all over the course.... grrr

Having seen what they can do, I'd take geese over badgers every time.

 

[AmandaJR]

We have huge areas that badgers have damaged this year. Pulled back a section today and full of the wormy things underneath they're looking for. We also have crows that do the same thing but not great slabs of turf. So far it's on many of the banks surrounding the greens and also a few (large) patches of rough - real mess though. I assume a free drop due to burrowing animal "scrape" but that doesn't help how bad the course is looking due to them.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Never knew badgers did that sort of thing. We have loads of geese especially around the 18th green side pond which cack all over the green. Both are a menace

 

[shewy]

They will definitely have TB cull em with a SW,saves the cattle you know.

 

[Foxholer]

Played Brockett Hall Palmerston last weekend and quite a few tees (half a dozen) and a couple of areas around greens were damaged.

They haven't touched the greens, but whether that's because of the treatment or lack of worms they are not sure.

16th on the Melbourne has always been a 'playpen' for them between tee and fairway.

Very destructive! Much worse than Canada Geese. Egyptian Geese seem much tidier in their toilet habits - prettier and fewerhem of them too!

 

[Paperboy]

Same at my course, they like the grubs ass much as the crows. Badgers in the evenings and rooks in the day.
Very frustrating.

 

[MegaSteve]

Any idea why the blighters are going mad wrecking courses this year?

Population explosion... Like the fox there's too many now in their natural habitat and they're having to go further afield to get fed... I live in an area surrounded by woodland and five years ago seeing a badger was a rare sight... Nowadays see them on a weekly/daily basis...

 

[Andy808]

They will definitely have TB cull em with a SW,saves the cattle you know.

Sod the cattle they are a menace to traffic, people and a lot of golf courses and public gardens down here. We have sets all over our course and strangely they don't do much damage to the major parts of the course. Mind you I have seen a badger do more damage to a car than should be possible without being killed outright but the badgers get up sneer at the car and walk away with a big attitude. We have a bigger problem with crows digging leather jackets out of the greens making huge holes all over them.

 

[fundy]

Played Brockett Hall Palmerston last weekend and quite a few tees (half a dozen) and a couple of areas around greens were damaged.

They haven't touched the greens, but whether that's because of the treatment or lack of worms they are not sure.

16th on the Melbourne has always been a 'playpen' for them between tee and fairway.

Very destructive! Much worse than Canada Geese. Egyptian Geese seem much tidier in their toilet habits - prettier and fewerhem of them too!

Next door to West Herts where Murph is and no surprise its affected both. Played the Melbourne last week and theyve basically dug up the 16th fairway, real shame as one of my fav holes on the course and have created a fair bit of damage elsewhere. Sounds like hands are pretty tied and theres very little that you can do about it too

Brocket have had problems with them in the past but nothing to the extent of the current problems

 

[daymond]

The Wind in the Willows has a lot to answer for together with that cute white face.

 

[Imurg]

Not surprised they get loads at Chiltern - right on the edge of a large wood with plenty of open grassy areas around.
Luckily we're not that extensively wooded so only have issues with Moles.....There's only one way to get rid of a Mole...

 

[SocketRocket]

Spray the fairways with carbendazim. It suppresses Earth Worms and the badgers will go somewhere else. It also stops worm casts which can be damaging in the winter.

 

[USER1999]

Spray the fairways with carbendazim. It suppresses Earth Worms and the badgers will go somewhere else. It also stops worm casts which can be damaging in the winter.

Not sure you are allowed to do this any more?

 

[Foxholer]

Spray the fairways with carbendazim.

And most definitely put up a sign about not licking balls!

Only really effective at getting (killing) the surface feeding ones, and then a fair amount of hassle - leaving clippings on the surface.

Might be a cure for greens but certainly not a 'green cure'!

Bloody expensive to spray an entire course too!

 

[G1BB0]

a few month back there was banging on the garden gate, my lad went down thinking it was someone breaking, saw these huge claws and ran back in, it was a badger as I had a few bin bags outside the wheely bin... carnage the next morning, next one in my garden is gonna get cleavered!!!!!!!!!