Ok, the deer are eating my okra and any tomato that gets pink. I guess I need to do something. I've read that a 4 ft fence with some added arms for and electric wire will work for deer. Anyone know of a good description of this setup including how to make the arms? Thanks.
go to any farm supply store. They will have the whole system including the arms.
Put up an electric fence, single strand. Every 15 feet or so, hang a strip of tin foil. Coat the tin foil with peanut butter......
The deer smell the peanut butter, try to eat it, and get zapped on their ass. They then avoid the fence like the plague. It doesn't hurt them in any permanent way, but the fence may have to be fixed occasionally since the first time the deer try it they jump really high and may fall on the wire...
The peanut butter is an attractions. Otherwise, they would simply go under the fence and miss the point of the lesson.... There was no indication of whether to use smooth or crunchy, but it seems a good way to get rid of the smooth style that nobody except deer and mice eat.....
It seemed like a good idea and easy to implement. My particular nemesis, uhh, nemesae,are wild pigs... I think it might work on them also, and will try it next spring...
Andy in Eureka, Texas
( If you have a singing fish mounted in at least three rooms of your house, you might live in Eureka, Texas )
^^^^^^^^ Yeah, but which Eureka, TX???....There's 3 of'em :-)
Also, well placed .243 works wonders at dissuading wild pigs, and deer for that matter, from further crop damage.
KW
-->Wild Boar solution Also, well placed .243 works wonders at dissuading wild pigs,
I prefer the Remington 30-06 over a Winchester.
A friend puts out a sack of yams covered in honey to help reduce the damage to his fields. He said on our last visit that for the first time since he's lived on the ranch, the boars are not damaging his property as badly. He makes a darned fine pork sausage.
The Ranger
-- "Why don't you talk to yourself?" "Because I get too many stupid answers." -- Abbot and Costello, "Hold that Ghost""
Andy responds:
I am in the UPPER CLASS Eureka, Texas... With a population of 350, and NO FOREIGNERS, we are very selective of our neighbors and our ammunition......
I don't have a .243 and don't feel like staying up past Jay Leno to shoot the little buggers..... Wild pigs are very hard to dissuade. They trot back and forth, here, during the day..... Heck, I don't want to shoot them, ... ... I just want them to stay away from my cucumbers...........
Andy in Eureka, Texas
( If you have three neighbors, all claiming to be Elvis Presley, you might live in Eureka, Texas )
I wonder if I could just temporarily run a wire nose-high around my okra and tomatoes?
Dave wrote: >
The system at a farm supply store is the wire, plus either small posts or brackets tat you can attach to a chain link. It also has a transformer, delivering a painful but not deadly jolt that a live wire may deliver. It cost $19.99 for me.
Just my 2¢, but I hope your ready for the dead birds. The voltage (It's really the amperage you need to be concerned with.) that will put bambi on his butt is gonna' fry "tweety bird" and friends (four and two legged) that come into contact with it. You may be down with the collateral damage but passer-bys, neighbors, grand kids, ect., may see you in a whole, brand new light. Birds also help clean up insects in the garden, so think about unintended consequences.
Someone recommended a 30-06, which, if you're competent with hitting what you aim at, may be practical, and if you live in the country. While I'm not happy with the idea, at least you would be shooting the poachers.
With any luck at all, another idea comes along.
Unlikely... I ran a low double hot wire around my front yard to keep my border collie off the fence. She's quite a jumper. ;-)
I have not seen bird kills near or around the wire. They are low amperage AC.
You don't need to run a high amperage to discourage deer. The shocky feeling is bad enough to deter dogs, horses or cattle so I see no reason it'd not spook a deer.
Haven't you ever seen birds on power lines? The voltage and ampreage are a heck of a lot more than electric fences.
Here is a place where you can read how the fences work.:
Never seen a dead bird there, and the amperage is not enough to kill a squirrel. I have seen them touch the wire and scream bloody murder, but scamper up a tree alive. I have also seen a deer touch it, and jump several feet in the air before flying (and taking the whole herd with it).
Put out strong smelling deodorant soap for temporary protection. You can either hang the bar of soap around vulnerable plants, or take a potato peeler and whittle off slices all over the garden.
How effective it is depends on how desperate the deer are, but we've found it works pretty well at keeping the deer away from my mom's flowers in the summer. It didn't work so well around the ornamental cabbage in the winter.
Penelope
I'm not familiar with the system being discussed, but I used a hot wire system a few years back to keep a dog from climbing the fence. to be shocked, the dog had to be "grounded", literally. Birds that landed on the wire were unaffected.
Penelope
Alright, show's over. Move it along. Move it along. Show's over.
My god, where did all them pitchforks and torches come from? This seemed like such a friendly little news group.
So electric fences have progressed since I ran off and became a Luddite, good.
Mr. Om says he uses a double hot wire around his yard. Does that mean two hot wires, or one hot and one ground? Grounding isn't an issue? I also see that some fences only zap for a limited duration, like a fraction of a second. Sounds reasonable. I would still worry about the amount of voltage that can get a deer's attention and the amount that could throw a half ounce bird into cardiac arrhythmia. But that's probably just me. If no one has seen that, then it must not be a big deal. No complaints from the grandkids or do they like getting their hair to stand on end?
As far as birds and squirrels on the power lines, occasionally they do find a ground and you can hear the transformer blow for miles. They never make that mistake twice. But that really doesn't relate to the discussion at hand.
Oh, before I forget, thanks Mr. Om for the web site. There's always something to learn. Slow down and you get left behind. When I got out of school, there were three states of "matter" in physics and two "Kingdoms" in biology. Now I find that plasma has been added to gas, liquid, solid, and Kingdom Fungi, Kingdom Monera, and Kingdom Protista have been added to Kingdom Animalia, and Kingdom Plantae.
Like to chat, but I gotta' run.
Later.
Plasma was added a while back. Guess I better not bring up the Bose-Einstein condensate... :-)
... ah what the heck:
I suspect part of the reason for all the responses is that not many people want to be songbird killers, or thought of as being songbird killers. If there were pitchforks (which I didn't see) they would have been aimed at that, rather than directly at you. Like you said, we all just try to keep learning, and most of us are more interested in helping people out than re-enacting a boring scene from Frankenstein.
ps, Wasn't Kingdom Monera in Buck Rogers?
2 strands. One about 4" high and one at about 14" up. This keeps her from going _under_ or over the wires.
Honestly, I've never seen a dead bird in my front yard and the wires keep the border collie from going over the fence.
Those dogs can JUMP!!!
Well, I have heard of hummingbirds being killed on fences that have colored insulators. The trick is to try to keep the hot wire more than a bird's length away from any other wire and use plain black or white insulators. A length of PVC pipe can also be slipped over posts. Some fence chargers provide a lot more zap than others.
All this balloney about birds. How about children and pets? Personally, I've been zapped crossing electric cattle fences while hunting and shock was very mild. Probably just enough to discourage the animals but otherwise harmless. Electric fences, tall fences or netting are the only sure remedies to keep deer away from plants.
Frank
I used PVC pipe for poles.
No insulators were needed.
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