Why Hedgehogs Need Our Help

There is something deeply reassuring about a hedgehog snuffling through the herbaceous border at dusk. For generations, these spiny little creatures were a fixture of the British countryside, but their numbers have fallen sharply in recent decades. Intensive farming, tidy gardens, busy roads and the loss of hedgerows have all taken their toll. The good news is that a rural garden — especially one with a few wild corners — can become a genuine sanctuary.

The hedgehog is a nocturnal wanderer with an appetite for slugs, beetles and caterpillars, so welcoming one in is both a pleasure and a practical ally for the kitchen garden. What follows are simple, tried-and-tested steps you can take this season.

Leave a Wild Corner or Two

Modern gardens can be too neat for their own good. A hedgehog needs somewhere to sleep, nest and hibernate, and a tightly clipped lawn offers nothing of the sort. The single most valuable thing you can do is to let part of your plot go a little feral.

• Build a leaf pile in a quiet corner and leave it undisturbed through winter — it makes an ideal hibernation site.
• Allow a patch of long grass to grow, perhaps behind a shed or along a boundary, and resist the urge to strim it until late spring.
• Stack logs and brash loosely rather than burning them; a log pile is a five-star hedgehog hotel and a home for beetles too.
• Leave seed heads and fallen leaves in place over the colder months, as they shelter the insects hedgehogs feed on.

If you keep a compost heap, take care when turning it. A warm, decaying mound is a favourite nesting spot, and a fork through a sleeping hedgehog does no one any good. Lift the top layer gently and have a look before you dig in.

Create Safe Gaps in Fences

A hedgehog can travel up to two miles in a single night in search of food and mates, but it cannot climb. A solid fence or a walled garden becomes a trap rather than a home. The answer is a 'hedgehog highway' — a small gap roughly the size of a CD case, about 13 centimetres square, at the base of every boundary.

• Cut a notch out of the bottom of a wooden panel fence or lift a gravel board slightly.
• Ask neighbours to do the same, so gaps line up and create a continuous route through the street or hamlet.
• Check drainage channels and cattle grids — hedgehogs fall in and cannot climb out. A gently sloping ramp of rough timber can save lives.
• Keep pond edges shallow, or add a gently sloping stone or a piece of roughened wood so any animal that falls in can clamber out.

In a rural setting, a native hedgerow is even better than a fence. Hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and field maple provide both cover and a larder of insects, and they connect your garden to the wider landscape beautifully.

Put Away the Slug Pellets

This is the one change that matters more than any other. Slug pellets containing metaldehyde are lethal to hedgehogs, and even the so-called 'safe' iron phosphate versions can cause harm if eaten in quantity. A hedgehog that eats a poisoned slug will absorb the toxin, and the result is often slow and distressing.

Instead, control slugs the old-fashioned way. Encourage natural predators — hedgehogs themselves, frogs, toads and ground beetles — by providing damp, shady refuges and avoiding chemical sprays altogether. A beer trap sunk into the soil will deal with slugs without harming anything with a spine, and a nightly patrol with a torch and bucket is a surprisingly satisfying job for a summer evening. If you must use a pellet, use it sparingly and never around the edges of beds where wildlife forages.

Food, Water and a Little Care

Hedgehogs are perfectly capable of feeding themselves, but a little supplementary food helps, particularly in dry summers when the ground is baked hard and worms are out of reach. Put out a shallow dish of clean water every night — a saucer of milk is a myth and will cause serious digestive problems.

• Meat-based cat or dog food in jelly, or specialist hedgehog biscuits, are ideal.
• Never offer bread or milk, which do more harm than good.
• Keep feeders raised or use a covered feeding station to deter cats and foxes.
• Clean dishes daily to prevent the spread of disease between visitors.

If you see a hedgehog out in daylight, especially a small one in autumn, it is likely in trouble. Weigh it if you can — anything under about 450 grams in late autumn will struggle to survive hibernation, and a call to a local wildlife rescue is the kindest response.

Garden Practices That Keep Them Safe

Once hedgehogs are visiting, a few sensible habits will keep them coming back. Check long grass before mowing and always look inside bonfires before lighting them — build the pile the night before, or move it a metre or two first. Netting, plastic rings from drinks cans, and loose fruit netting are all hazards; keep them well off the ground or cut them up before binning.

Leave a shallow dish of water near your wild corner, avoid pesticides entirely, and let a little untidiness be a virtue rather than a failing. In return, you will be rewarded with the rustle of spines under the hawthorn at dusk and the quiet knowledge that your patch of countryside is playing its part in keeping a much-loved species alive.