One morning in late winter or early spring, a lot of UK gardeners notice the same thing: a well-worn gap at the corner of the shed, a scatter of feathers on the lawn, and a smell that's hard to place but definitely animal. A fox is the likely answer. Urban foxes are adaptable, and a shed, decking or garage corner gives them exactly what they want — dry, dark, quiet cover with a hidden entrance.

Why a shed looks like prime fox habitat

Rural foxes dig earths. Urban foxes often don't need to, and den above ground in whatever provides shelter: under sheds, decking, garages and outbuildings, in log piles, or deep inside a conifer hedge. The appeal is simple. A space beneath a shed is dry, out of the wind, dark all day and low on human traffic. A gap about the width of your hand is plenty.

It also helps to know that urban foxes live in family groups and hold territories covering several gardens. A plot with a compost heap, a spilling bird feeder and a bin that doesn't quite shut will be visited long before any fox chooses to den there. Denning is a commitment; regular visits are just routine.

The denning year: cubbing, moving and dispersal

The fox year runs on a fairly predictable rhythm. Late December through February is the breeding season, which is when you hear the screams — a vixen calling, a dog fox answering, animals chasing along fence lines at two in the morning. It sounds far worse than it is.

Cubs are usually born from late March into April, after a pregnancy of roughly seven weeks. They stay underground at first, and the vixen rarely leaves them for long. By four or five weeks old they appear at the entrance; soon after, they're tumbling about in the open, and that's often the moment a household realises it has been sharing a garden with a family for a month.

Through late spring and summer the group moves between dens, especially if disturbed. A vixen who feels threatened will carry her cubs one at a time to a new site — sometimes next door. By autumn the cubs are increasingly independent, and most disperse over winter. Dens are also used outside the breeding season for shelter in heavy rain and cold snaps, so a fox in residence in November may have nothing to do with cubs at all.

Signs a fox is denning under your shed

• A smoothed, well-worn path or a patch of bare earth leading to a gap under a shed, deck or outbuilding.
• Droppings on the lawn or path, often twisted and full of fur, small bones or berry pips.
• A musky smell, strongest in late winter and spring and concentrated near the entrance.
• Scattered feathers, chewed toys, or food scraps carried in and left lying about.
• Low grumbling, or the high-pitched contact calls of cubs in early summer.
• A fox that bolts from the same spot whenever you open the back door, then reappears at dusk.

One sign on its own means little. Several together, in late winter or spring, usually mean cubs are on the way — or already there.

Why you shouldn't block the gap straight away

Sealing the entrance is the instinctive move, and it's the one most likely to cause a serious problem. Block a gap while an adult or cubs are inside and you trap them. That's distressing for the animals, and it's a welfare offence: causing unnecessary suffering to a wild mammal is against the law in the UK, and most poisons and many traps are restricted or banned. Rules differ between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so anything beyond sensible garden management deserves proper advice — your council's environmental health team or a qualified pest controller can tell you what's allowed locally.

There's a practical point too. A disturbed vixen will usually move her cubs, but she may simply take them under a neighbour's decking, and you'll be back where you started. Timing matters more than force.

Humane deterrents that actually work

Remove what the garden offers, then make the site unattractive once you're certain it's empty.

• Feed pets indoors and don't leave bowls out overnight.
• Secure bins with a clip or bungee cord, and keep food caddies shut. A lid that lifts easily will be lifted.
• Bring bird feeders in at night and sweep up spilled seed. Feeders attract rodents, and rodents attract foxes.
• Cover compost heaps, and skip bone meal or blood, fish and bone fertiliser — the smell draws foxes in.
• Stop feeding foxes deliberately. Handouts encourage a group to settle and breed nearby.

Then deal with the den itself:

1. Watch for a few nights to confirm nothing is going in or out.
2. Dig a shallow trench around the base of the shed and bury galvanised mesh, turning the lower edge outward into an L shape to stop animals digging underneath.
3. Fix rigid mesh over gaps, and check that fence panels and gates are sound.
4. Clear clutter and cut back vegetation that provides cover.
5. If foxes are still using the site, ask a professional about a one-way gate: animals can leave but not return, so nothing is trapped inside.

Lights, radios, water sprayers and scent products can help briefly, but foxes grow used to anything predictable, and ultrasonic devices have little reliable effect outdoors. Use them alongside cutting off food and access, not instead of it.

A calm, practical approach

A fox under the shed is usually a temporary situation, not a permanent one. In winter and early spring, assume cubs may be involved and leave the den alone until the family moves on, typically by late summer. Keep dogs away from the entrance, don't corner or handle cubs, and if you find one that's clearly injured or orphaned, contact a wildlife rescue for advice rather than intervening yourself.

Once the site is empty, block it properly and remove the food that made your garden attractive in the first place. Mention it to neighbours, too — foxes range across several gardens, and a gap three doors down will undo your good work. Handled this way, foxes and households rub along well enough: they take rodents and slugs, they're good to watch from a distance, and they move on as the cubs grow up.

Photo: Mohan Nannapaneni / Pexels