No – not the Asian hornets or frelons this time, but Sanglier – or wild boar. They have decided they like the look of our friend’s (our host’s) lawn.

Four nights, ago Mick and I noticed quite a lot of digging in the lawn, outside the small electric fence the owner has installed to protect new lawn she planted after visits from these animals a few months ago. Well, at least the fence works, but it is clearly not big enough.

Mick and I went searching for ways the animals could have gained access to the fenced property. And, we did find a new trail the sanglier had made near a part of the fence that was broken due to a rotten fence post. Easy, Mick set about fixing it.

It is always interesting when you are living in someone else’s home (when house sitting) trying to find essential things you might need when something breaks down. We have had quite a few issues crop up at different ‘sits’ during our years of house sitting, but somehow Mick is able to solve the problem. I jokingly call him “the fixer”, after a famous, now ex-politician from Australia who claimed he was ‘a fixer’!! (Well, it makes us giggle.)

But, here the challenge was possibly an 8 out of 10 on a difficulty scale.

Mick could find a few old star picket fence posts but there was no hammer, block buster or anything heavy to ram the pole into the earth. He eventually used a combination of a 5kg weights barbell and a half broken old shovel head, or was it a spade? (Mick always gets cranky with me for not knowing the difference, apparently it is obvious and he has told me dozens of times, But…. I still don’t know.)

Anyway, we were pretty confident we had ‘plugged the hole’.

Sadly, the next morning the mess was worse. The sanglier had obviously gained access from another, new direction.

This part of the yard, complete with my washing from the previous afternoon, is on the left of the electric fence. The digging in a circle pattern was not from aliens (or circle crops), but possibly only one sanglier digging up around a newly planted section of lawn that had been damaged months ago.

These photos show the damage near the pool was worse after the second visit, and according to one of the locals, it was possibly made by a group of 10+ sanglier. He told us that now that the grapes have been harvested, the boars’ food supply had dwindled and they needed to find alternatives. That also explained why our friend’s yard had been left untouched for the last 6-8 weeks because there had been lots of lovely ripe grapes available for the animals to eat. We learnt that although it is hunting season (and we hear regular gun shots on Wednesdays and the weekends to remind us), the hunters will only come to a private property to kill the boars if the property has animals or a significant vegetable plot. Definitely not for a lawn surrounding an in-ground pool!!

But, how did they get in?

Mick went in search for possible entry points. It made me think of the story about the little Dutch boy who tried to plug a leaking dike. This could be a never ending problem. But, I should have had more faith.

Mick did find yet another weak and rotted wooden fence post and a significant part of the fence weakly attached. So, using the barbell and the shovel (or spade), and some wire  and pliers I had found, Mick set about repairing the fence.

Two mornings later, and there has been no fresh digging. Yeah!! But, we are not confident they have gone completely. Perhaps Mick’s work has just put them off for a night or two.

Today I spent quite some time replanting the divots of turf the boars had dug up in search for the tubers and roots they eat. There was no point doing that until we were sure the fences were holding. I am unsure if the lawn will survive, and we have decided not to tell the owner of the home (and the very-dug-up-lawn) because there is nothing she, or we, can do. Our normal policy is to keep the home owners very much in the loop about issues at their home while they are away, but we are breaking our own rule on this occasion.

I’ve read that each year hunters in France kill 500,000+ sangliers. That’s huge.

I think the only answer is for our friend and home owner to get a larger electric fence that will protect the full area of her lawn. This is a very common, and not hugely-expensive practice in France. We have ‘sat’ for quite a few home owners in France, and the majority has had an electric fence.

Mick and I have our fingers crossed that our ‘visitors’ have taken the hint that they are not welcome here, as we have other important work to do in the meantime. We are preparing for a special luncheon with some of our friends from the village in two days time. Mick as per usual, has set himself a challenge to make a rabbit pie (one of his speciality dishes that takes several days to prepare) and I am going to try to make a dessert I used to make often back in the ’80s – a biscotten torte. (I say ‘try’ because I cannot buy Nice biscuits in France!!! and I read that they were probably named after the French city of Nice!!)