Electric deer fence

[Hatchdog]

A couple of years ago I planted some cedar hybrid shrubs to create a privacy fence. The first winter the deer left them alone as expected as this hybrid is advertised to be deer resistant. But last winter which was colder and much longer than average the deer got to the shrubs. They damaged the two on each end and left the five in the center alone????? Anyway I put this electric fence in to hopefully avoid this from repeating.

I used temporary fencing as I plan to take it down in the summer. I water and mow this area and the fence will be in the way. Also I selected a low voltage charger because i only want to “train” the deer to leave my shrubs alone. Plus if my dog decides to check the fence out he won’t get a hard shock. I tested the fence on myself and while it gave enough juice to get my attention it wasn’t near as intense as the fence I had at my last place which was to contain horse. There I had a livestock rated charger.

Hopefully this will keep those pesky deer away from my shrubs and let them grow up.


The worst damage from last winter.

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The temporary fence and the pet level charger.

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IMG_4408.jpeg (3.08 MiB) Viewed 1009 times

[BrokenolMarine]

Good deal. I hope the light charge is enough to keep the off the landscaping.

Funny story.
During my career, between my time in patrol operations and my last tour in Support with State Police, I worked about 18 months with Fish and Game in Dispatch. It was ... interesting. We got all kinds of calls, from Pipe bombs in creeks to bears on the back porch and DEER in the garden. The lady called all upset and the Game Warden told her to install an electric fence. She was happy and he went away. A followup call a couple weeks later and she was really upset, she had installed the electric fence and it had done NOTHING to curb her deer problem. He walked out with her to check the installation.

"Where is the fence?"
"Right there, don't you see the little white flags?"
"Um... little white flags Ma'am?"
"Sure, all the way around the garden about five feet out."
"You installed an invisible pet fence?"
"Yup, the other ones were all really ugly and I'd have to turn them on and off to go in the garden. But this one does NOTHING to stop the deer."

"Well, it will work great ma'am, but you'll have to buy a bunch of the shock collars that go WITH that fence, catch all the deer and put the collars ON the deer. Um... have a great day."

You wouldn't believe the stories.
(Pipe bomb in the creek? No terrorism involved. Redneck fishing.... )

[JEBar]

we used to have an acre garden beside our home ...... it produced really well but the first year deer and other critters got more out of it than we did .... the second year we ran a 3 wire electric fence, problem solved

[Hatchdog]

Good deal. I hope the light charge is enough to keep the off the landscaping.

Funny story.
During my career, between my time in patrol operations and my last tour in Support with State Police, I worked about 18 months with Fish and Game in Dispatch. It was ... interesting. We got all kinds of calls, from Pipe bombs in creeks to bears on the back porch and DEER in the garden. The lady called all upset and the Game Warden told her to install an electric fence. She was happy and he went away. A followup call a couple weeks later and she was really upset, she had installed the electric fence and it had done NOTHING to curb her deer problem. He walked out with her to check the installation.

"Where is the fence?"
"Right there, don't you see the little white flags?"
"Um... little white flags Ma'am?"
"Sure, all the way around the garden about five feet out."
"You installed an invisible pet fence?"
"Yup, the other ones were all really ugly and I'd have to turn them on and off to go in the garden. But this one does NOTHING to stop the deer."

"Well, it will work great ma'am, but you'll have to buy a bunch of the shock collars that go WITH that fence, catch all the deer and put the collars ON the deer. Um... have a great day."

You wouldn't believe the stories.
(Pipe bomb in the creek? No terrorism involved. Redneck fishing.... )

Great story and my wife was recently guilty of the same thought. She mentioned the invisible fence until I reminded her that she would have to put collars on all the deer. She knows better but had a moment of, “duh”. We got a laugh out of that.