Perimeter defense

[whitefishpoint]

I just push the panic button on my car's key fob, honks the horn & flashes the lights. It'll spook off most things. The backup plan goes BANG.

Good one! This also work as home defense at night. Sleep with the car keys on the night stand and if you hear weird noises in the house, push the panic button.

Better yet, bypass the neutral safety switch, leave it in drive and put a brick on the accelerator and hit the remote start button on your key fob.

That'll keep those pesky bears busy.

What we have here is not a problem with bears, we have a problem with TV.

[Corwin C]

I like the idea behind this product, just unsure how safe it is..I would like to have a tiny house so I understand the idea behind. It would be excellent as I would want to keep pests away that may want to eat my food or worse yet me. My over all idea would be extended stays so the scent of food maybe abundant, I'd prefer a more natural way of deterring them just afraid that what ever would do that to a bear would do that to me as well... still interested in other peoples opinion on this type of device

Fence chargers essentially create an electrical difference between the ground and the wire on the fence. The electrical difference should be high voltage but very low current. In order for it to work, something has to complete that circuit. The quality of that connection is incredibly important. Most systems require that a long electrode be driven deep into the ground. In some conditions this would be difficult or even impossible. The type of soil and the moisture content can vary the capability of an electric fence from virtually useless to downright painful. I've been around the same electric fence that barely tingles at times and at other times it will bring tears to your eyes. If you set one of these up in dry gravel or sand it isn't going to work. But if you're on a regularly watered patch of lawn, it's going to work well, both as protection and a deterrent.

As far as the safety aspect is concerned ... there is always some risk in inflicting a shock. Some individuals will be affected more than others. If you follow manufacturers directions and make your installation accordingly, understanding the systems capabilities and limitations, I believe that it could be used safely and effectively.

In addition, most bears are opportunistic and wary of humans. We all need to do our part and keep the things that attract them put away and anything that you can do to make a visit uncomfortable to them will make it more likely that they not visit in the first place. Blinking lights, harsh smells, strange noises, pet activity, etc. can all be effective deterrents. As with anything else though, there are always exceptions. The bears that are generally in trouble are the ones that are accustomed to humans and relate human activity to an easy dinner.

[Wolffarmer]

When I saw the title I was expecting claymore mines. But this will do.

I have spent plenty of time around cows. And one thing for sure is that cows are dumb. Really there is just no other way to put it. I have also seen cows walk right through an electric fence. Then one day I realized why most of them happen. A cow will sniff along the ground looking for a treat, Put its head under the fence just a bit and then raise the head so that the wire touchs them just behind the poll ( where the horns would grow if they have any ). This area is BEHIND the eyes so in the mind of the cow the shock is coming from the rear. So they keep right on going to get away from it.

Randy

[David S]

When I saw the title I was expecting claymore mines. But this will do.

I have spent plenty of time around cows. And one thing for sure is that cows are dumb. Really there is just no other way to put it. I have also seen cows walk right through an electric fence. Then one day I realized why most of them happen. A cow will sniff along the ground looking for a treat, Put its head under the fence just a bit and then raise the head so that the wire touchs them just behind the poll ( where the horns would grow if they have any ). This area is BEHIND the eyes so in the mind of the cow the shock is coming from the rear. So they keep right on going to get away from it.

Randy

I think your right aboout the cows,on the otherhand horse's are very sensitive in their nose's and can sense the the current form a foot away and tend to stay back from a hot wire.

[GuitarPhotog]

When I saw the title I was expecting claymore mines. But this will do.

I have spent plenty of time around cows. And one thing for sure is that cows are dumb. Really there is just no other way to put it. I have also seen cows walk right through an electric fence. Then one day I realized why most of them happen. A cow will sniff along the ground looking for a treat, Put its head under the fence just a bit and then raise the head so that the wire touchs them just behind the poll ( where the horns would grow if they have any ). This area is BEHIND the eyes so in the mind of the cow the shock is coming from the rear. So they keep right on going to get away from it.

Randy

I think your right aboout the cows,on the otherhand horse's are very sensitive in their nose's and can sense the the current form a foot away and tend to stay back from a hot wire.

Exactly! But horses quickly learn to avoid the wire, even when it's not hot. So we could rotate one fence charger across 3 or 4 pastures and the horses thought all the fences were hot

[pete42]

funniest thing that I saw associated with an electrified fence was when my neighbor told his wife to touch the fence to see if it was on
she said "do you think I'm dumb? I'm not touching it" he said " not with your hand, break a weed and touch it with the weed"
the weed was green and when she touched the fence well, I learned some new words that day

pete

[KCStudly]

Well that's strange. The last link in the above post takes me into the edit screen of GuitarPhotog's post, so I figure, hmm I don't see a url, but I do see an extra [ /quote] bracket, so lets just delete that and submit and see if it fixes it for him. Nope it just reposted a copy under my user name (which I am now overwriting).

Very odd. Perhaps a Mod can fix it for him and get GuitarPhotogs post secure again.

[GuitarPhotog]

Well that's strange. The last link in the above post takes me into the edit screen of GuitarPhotog's post, so I figure, hmm I don't see a url, but I do see an extra [ /quote] bracket, so lets just delete that and submit and see if it fixes it for him. Nope it just reposted a copy under my user name (which I am now overwriting).

Very odd. Perhaps a Mod can fix it for him and get GuitarPhotogs post secure again.

Yeah, I don't know how that happened. I tried to insert a smilie.

<Chas>

[GuitarPhotog]

Thanks KC, I fixed it.

<Chas>

[M B Hamilton]

I think I'd like to know a bit about where you're camping and the circumstances at the camp site. I will say that from the perspective of having slept in a tent on the Arctic ice with polar bears around a number of times, the last thing I want is to find out a bear is in-close by having it start messing with what I'm sleeping in. The more time you have, the more options you have.

[mezmo]

I'm gonna keep away from using electric fences. Too much opportunity for
inadvertent pain and out-smarting yourself.

When I was a kid, about 12 years old, my buddy Rob and I and my younger sister Cindy,
about 9, decided to take a path along the Allegany river to a store named Weston's,
a local discount store like K-mart, back then. It was about a, very pleasant, three
mile walk along the river. About halfway there, the Haskall creek flowed into
the river. It was too deep to cross right there, but if you walked a little bit up along the creek,
you came to a spot where it had spread out into two shallow flows with a little gravel
bar between them. Also crossing over the creek, diagonally at that point, was a single
strand electric fence held up by a couple of fence posts, tilting in opposite directions. [The
electric fence was for that farm's bull pasture.] The wire was positioned low, but not
quite low enough for us to step over it easily, so Rob picked up a large stick he found nearby
and pushed down on the wire and he and I stepped over. Unfortunately for Cindy,
when she was in mid step, straddling the wire as she was stepping over it, Rob got
zapped by the stick he was holding the wire down with and he involuntarily let go of it !
[It was evidently damp from the creek water even though it didn't look so when he
picked it up.] This let the electric fence wire snap up and hit poor Cindy right above
her inner knees !This produced quite loud yelling and yelping from Cindy as she was
simultaneously jumping up and down and trying to get away from the fence wire. We finally
made a fast grab and pulled her way from the wire into the pasture side without getting
ourselves zapped too somehow. Of course it was so hilarious, that Rob and I busted out
laughing, and eventually even Cindy started laughing too once the indignity of it all wore off !

We then skirted alongside the inside of the bull pasture fence line back towards the river and
were able to slip under the electric fence by the river [Plenty of space to crawl under it there.]
and continued along the path to the store.

The return trip must have been uneventful as I don't recall any mishaps happening then.

So, I've decided electric fences and people don't mix so i steer clear of them. It's still a
fun story to tell though.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[ioan]

Norm,
that was a great story, thanks for the laughs!

-ioan

[Wolffarmer]

Long time back when I was in high school we had cows and one pasture had an electric fence about 5-6 miles long. We used a 12 v battery fence charger on it. Had to change that with a charged up one about every two days or so, if I remember that right. And when the fence shorted out had to walk most of it looking for the fault. Usually a weed blown onto it. There is a tester to tell a person if the fence was hot but when walking the fence with cows inside. You could not turn it off that long so you had to fix it while it was HOT. Yeah, I know the bite of a fence. And the long hot walk through the desert in the summer with a bag of tools, a bit of water and keeping any eye out for rattle snakes.

Just call me Ole Sparky

Randy

[Kharn]

The Chesapeake Tearjerkers seem to have had a rash of campground incidents of wildlife interfering with campers' peaceful rest after a few brews around the campfire, but for some reason the wildlife only bother the teardrops on inaugural trips and have been known to communicate in English when the doors are found locked.

[GuitarPhotog]

That kind of wildlife is known to attack first-timer visitors to the DAM gathering. The attacks here in California generally involve quantities of toilet paper

But for some reason they attack only newbies, so everyone else must have some effective form of perimeter defense.



<Chas>