You had a marten in your house and have been quiet for a few days now? Are you wondering whether the marten will come back or whether you can breathe a sigh of relief? Find out more about the territories and habits of martens and whether they keep coming back.
Does a marten always come back after being chased away?
Martens can always return to their original territory, even if they have not been seen for a long time. To prevent a recurrence, measures such as removing access points, using scents, lighting or getting a cat can be considered.
Marten territory
Martens are solitary creatures. Only one marten always lives in a territory, unless of course you have a marten's nest in the house, in which case you have to endure up to four young plus mother for four months. Beech martens have very large territories: they move within a radius of half a kilometer that they call their own. They mark this with scent traces from body glands, urine and feces. Other martens are not tolerated here; If one does appear, there are noisy territorial fights and sometimes broken car hoses, which they bite out of anger when they sense that another animal has settled here.
Do martens always come back?
Yes! Once a marten has established a territory, it is extremely difficult to persuade it to move. However, martens do not always sleep in the same place, which can give the impression that they have moved away. Martens have several hiding places within their territory, each of which is equipped with several (emergency) exits. For example, a marten may not appear in the attic for several nights or even weeks and suddenly it is back because it was just on vacation in the barn.
Preventing a marten from coming back
As I said, it is not easy to drive away a marten. Although the selection of measures is large, the effect is often rather small.
- Repel martens with smells such as cat and dog hair or urine
- Repel martens with light
- Close all entrances when the marten is outside
- Adopt an adult (!) cat (cats and martens don't get along)
Tip
You should never catch a marten without permission! From March to September or October (depending on the federal state), martens are subject to the closed season. Anyone who hunts martens at this time must expect high pen alties. But even outside the closed season, hunting and trapping are only permitted to hunters.
