Helping our hedgehogs: A beginner's guide

Hedgehogs aren’t just cute, they’re also a really useful part of the garden ecosystem, so it’s a good idea to welcome them into your space and help them snuggle down for winter. So, keep reading to find out why hedgehogs are such an asset to your garden and how you can help them out.

Why are hedgehogs good for your garden?

Hedgehogs are insectivores, so they love snails, slugs, earthworms, and larvae. If you’re a keen gardener, you’ll know that a lot of these species can be harmful to your plants, so hedgehogs serve as natural pest controllers to protect your plants from harm. This means if a hedgehog moves in, you can reduce your reliance on chemical pesticides.

Another way in which hedgehogs help to conserve biodiversity is in their role as seed dispersers. Berries and fruit form part of their diet, and they then excrete the seeds around their neighbourhood, allowing new plants and trees to grow along the hedgehog’s path.

How to help hedgehogs

Now we know why hedgehogs are so important, let’s explore how we can support them to carry out their important role in our garden’s ecosystem.

Create a hedgehog highway

Hedgehogs need to travel far and wide to find food and mates, often travelling up to 2km every night. So, creating hedgehog highways makes it easier for them to get around. This could be as simple as cutting a small hole in the bottom of one of your fence panels or digging a small ditch under your fence to allow them to pass between gardens.

Build a hedgehog house

Hedgehogs are one of only three UK mammals that hibernate (dormice and bats being the other two), and there are ways that you can help them survive this process. Placing a hedgehog house in your garden gives them a safe and warm place to shelter during the winter. To create the perfect place for hedgehogs to sleep, lay dry, loose straw or hay inside the house, making sure to only use natural materials. You’ll also want to place the house in a quiet, shaded spot where it can be camouflaged.

Leave out food and water

You can make a hedgehog’s life a lot easier by leaving out food and water for them. This doesn’t need to be more than a small bowl of hedgehog food every so often, just make sure to remove any food after 24 hours to prevent flies from laying eggs in it. Hedgehogs don’t always hibernate all the way through winter, especially if the weather is mild, so you can also leave food and water out during the colder months too as they may often wake up for a snack.

Top tip: If you’ve set up a hedgehog house, create a feeding station in a spot away from the house as these animals don’t like to eat where they sleep. This will also mean that predators won’t be attracted to your hedgehog’s safe sanctuary.

Make ponds hedgehog-safe

If you have a pond in your garden, you’ll want to make sure this doesn’t become an issue for any hedgehogs passing through. To make avoid any accidents, install a short border or place a ramp in your pond to give them a way out if they were to fall in.

Avoid pesticide use

As with much of our beloved wildlife, pesticides can be harmful to hedgehogs, so it’s a good idea to avoid using them where possible. After all, hedgehogs can be natural pest controllers themselves, eating many common garden pests, so if you have a resident hedgehog, your reliance on pesticides should decrease anyway.

Check for hedgehogs

Hedgehogs love to hide in nature, so they can often be found in long grass and wood piles. This means it’s a good idea to check for hedgehogs in the grass before using sharp garden tools like strimmers, and in bonfires before setting them alight.

What to do if you see a hedgehog out in the day

Being nocturnal animals, hedgehogs will spend most daylight hours indoors, coming out at night. If you do however see one out in the daytime, it may be unwell or injured, so here’s what you can do to help keep it safe:

If the hedgehog seems well, leave it with some water. It may just be dehydrated and a little tired. Check up on it later and hopefully it will have continued on its way.
If the hedgehog seems injured, contact your local hedgehog rescue or vet. If they ask you to bring it in, place it in a high-sided box lined with an old towel. It’s also a good idea to fill a hot water bottle, wrap this in a towel, and place it in the box too as you don’t want an injured hedgehog to get cold.

Top tip: Use gardening gloves if you need to handle a hedgehog.

A hedgehog-friendly garden can be a benefit to all involved, the humans, the hedgehogs, and your garden itself! At Notcutts, we’ve got a variety of hedgehog-friendly products available to welcome them into your space. From hedgehog houses to food formulated especially for our prickled friends, you’ll be reaping the rewards in no time.