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Special Problems: Electric Fencing: Flower Garden Problems Netting for Garden Pest Control: Repellants: Smoke Bomb: Traps: Ultrasonic Devices: Water Sprayers: Doing Business with Us: |
About Our Electric Fence VEGETABLE GARDENERS: Are you tired or seeing your garden attacked yearly by squirrels, woodchucks, raccoons, rabbits, or other varmints? You can end this problem permanently with an electric fence product, Mr. McGregor’s Fence®, that is child-safe, pet-safe, 100% effective, convenient, and trouble-free. It is also affordable, costing no more than several live traps or a few gallons of repellant. The biggest advantage of this system is its permanence. Other control measures (traps, repellants, smoke bombs, guns, etc.) are only deployed after the garden has taken damage, and more damage may be done before the varmints are removed. In contrast, Mr. McGregor’s Fence® is always there. It happily withstands the winter, and after a few leaves are raked away it is ready for the Spring–long before the garden is up, at a time when most of your friendly neighborhood veggie-munchers are still asleep. Other big advantages are convenience and safety. Easily installed, the system consists of a barrier fence behind two very low charged wires (the barrier fence is not electrified). Any animal that encounters the barrier fence and tries to climb or burrow under it will come into good contact with the charged wires, get zapped, and go home. The wires are so low (4 inches and 8 inches off the ground) that you the gardener are unlikely to get zapped unless you decide to weed around the fence without first unplugging the fence charger. If you do get zapped you won’t want to touch the wire again, but you certainly won’t be hurt–because the system’s K-9 fence charger was designed to control small pets, and so it puts out a zap that is convincing but too weak to even harm a sparrow.
If You Already Have a Fence... The system is generally sold as a kit, which comes with clear installation instructions (see Electric Fence Kits below). However, it is also possible to purchase all the necessary components separately. This is especially recommended if you already have a fence and so have no need of the barrier fence and 27-inch posts included in the kits. People who already have a chain-link or wooden fence and want to mount electric fence wires near the top of it to keep out raccoons, squirrels, domestic pets, or other creatures should go to our website www.electric-deer-fence.com to purchase insulators suitable for attaching to the fence. Whatever the specific components used, however, it is important to make sure the invading animal is grounded at the moment it touches the electrified wire or wires. This can be done on tall fences by running a strip of metal or 1.5-inch polytape (available on electric-deer-fence.com) along the fence at a place where the animal's feet will be when it touches an active (electrified) wire with a nose or paw and by running a grounding wire from this metal or polytape over to the ground terminal on the electric fence charger, or if the K-9 charger is being used, over to a small ground rod (product 06-01) driven into the ground, because the K-9 has no ground terminal. If the fence is tall enough to be out of reach of crawling infants and small pets, it may be desirable to use a more powerful electric fence charger than the Zareba K-9, something like the Fi-Shock SS-5 (0.5 joules) or the Fi-Shock SS-10 (1.5 joules) offered below. The sum total of supplies needed for such a project are 1) an AC-powered or battery-powered charger (products 01-01, 01-02, 01-03, or 01-07); 2) an insulated line long enough to get from your nearest AC outlet (where the charger will be) and the fence (product 02-28B, not needed if a battery-powered charger is used, because then the charger can be mounted right next to or on the fence); 3) aluminum electric fence wire (product 02-02); 4) insulators for holding the wire (available on www.electric-deer-fence.com); and 5) the grounding material (metal or tape) and the wire described above. No grounding material is needed if the fence is made of bare metal (chicken wire or chain link fencing), because then the fence itself is a conductor and is also grounded; but it is essential to keep the electrified wire out of contact with the fence at all times (in order for the climbing animal to get a shock), and it is also necessary (if the fence charger has a ground terminal) to run a wire (which need not be insulated) from the metal fence over to the ground terminal on the charger.
The basic 100-foot kit comes in either an AC-powered or battery-powered version. The AC-powered version includes an AC-powered electric fence charger, an insulated cable to connect the charger to the fence, electric fence wire, fiberglass posts and clip-on insulators to hold the wire, mulch to keep weeds from growing up, a green poly-coated welded steel wire barrier fence, and posts to support the fence. The highly effective battery version (powered by two flashlight D batteries that last over two months) includes the battery-powered charger, a post to support the charger, a two-foot ground rod, and everything in the AC-powered kit except the charger and insulated connecting cable. The whole system has been designed for reliability and permanence—with an eye to having it last as many years as your garden. We also offer 50-foot extender kits that have all items but the charger and insulated cable or ground rod—everything you need to extend the system another 50, 100, 150, or 200 feet. (Since either charger can power up to a half-mile of system, you can extend the fence almost indefinitely.) Components and Accessories for Mr. McGregor’s Fence®
Mr. McGregor’s Fence® can be made proof against ground squirrels (and also proof against chipmunks and baby rabbits) by reducing the mesh size in such a way as to create a temporary obstacle to these critters. This is done by adding our squirrel barrier to the bottom of the main barrier fence, a job that can be done in 20 minutes. Also, if your garden is over 50 feet away from your nearest AC outlet, you will need more insulated cable (product 2-29) than comes with the AC-powered kit. This specialized cable is needed because the fence charger puts out a charge with very little power but lots of volts, and an ordinary house current extension cord cannot contain those volts. Using Mr. McGregor’s Fence® to Repel Deer
If you want to keep out deer plus small animals, order the 100-foot battery-powered fence kit (product F above), plus enough 50-foot extender kits to get around your garden. Then get the following: Enough additional 17-gauge aluminum electric fence wire (product 2-2) to go around your garden once; enough 36-inch fiberglass posts (product 9-3) to put one at each corner of your garden and the others at 20-foot intervals; and enough western-style insulators (product 7-2) to place one on each 36-inch post. More information about each of these components is available at our electric deer fence internet store, The Deer-Shock Depot, at www.electric-deer-fence.com. Once you have these components, follow the instructions that come with your fence kit(s) and also with the battery-powered charger (you will need two new alkaline flashlight “D” cells to power this pet-safe, child-safe charger and should plan to change them once every two months). Then place one of the 36" posts at each fence corner and space the rest out evenly, weaving them through the barrier fence in the same manner as the support posts (as described in the instructions). Insert 12" of each post into the ground, leaving 24" above ground. Attach an insulator at the top of each 36" post, wind the electric fence wire around the wire coming off the positive terminal of the fence charger, secure the rest of the electric fence wire to the insulators on each post around the garden, and cut off the rest of the wire after reaching the last post. For instructions regarding gates and other lesser matters see www.deer-shock.com and www.mcgregorfence.com. |
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