I love your picture. LMAO!
When you can’t get a good soil ground with an electric fence, alternating ground and hot wires will work. Also works to put the hot wire on standoff insulators and use a wire fence as a ground. This has worked for me with bears, can’t say about raccoons as I don’t think they are up here (yet).
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Steve thanks for pointing that out. I need to brush up on how electrical fences work, options for grounding them, etc. I was wondering about the feasibility of keeping an electric fence going through the winter here in zone 7a. I was going to use the double fence method (mainly for deer exclusion) where the inner fence has two wires and the outer one has one wire intermediate in height between the two inner fence wires. We don’t get a lot of snow overall but occasionally we get 10-20 inches and it stays around for a few days. If the snow reached the wire it would need to be cleared away for the fence to be functional. So if you are using a soil ground, and the first few inches of soil are frozen, is this going to prevent the fence from being hot? What if the ground is deep enough to reach soil that is not frozen - would it work then? Are their any other considerations to keeping an electric fence going in cold weather?
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Steve, you might want to check with an expert, but I would not think that frozen ground or a thin layer of snow would hurt the effectiveness of an electric fence. Snow levels getting up to the hot wires would I suspect short out the fence, just as weeds or other ground contact with the hot wires will.
I have heard that the double electric fence for deer is quite effective, but have never tried it myself.
One problem is much of the deer fencing info is geared towards summertime, that is keeping them out of the vegie garden. Not as much info for keeping them out of orchards, which are attractive to deer year round (with the exception of tall conventional fences that is). Perhaps members from the more northern areas might have some info regarding electric fencing and deep snow.
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Mike and others with squirrel issues - i’m new to this forum - just joined to find out what others are doing to combat being over run by tree rats - They know when to pick and already stripped my peach and plum trees this year - i have pawpaw and persimmon trees with young fruit and I want to get ahead of them before fruit ripens. do elec fences really work? Premier fence said they don’t recommend for squirrels - Looking for a good solution and guidance. TJ.
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Mine will get its first real test with squirrels this summer.
My fight last year was with Chipmunks. I installed chicken wire on top of the regular size chain link fence.
If you look at my drawing early on you will see that I install the electric fence off the ground mid-way up on the perimeter fence. This keeps the weeds or grasses from growing into the fence to short it out. (although a good herbicide applied to the ground under the fence would solve that problem).
My experimental set up is to help squirrels and raccoons and other climbers out as it forces them to traverse a 28 inch grid that has the “hot” and “cold” wires 3-7 inches apart.
This year the mission is to seal all of the tiny openings around the chicken wire fence to keep the bastardial (is that a word, if not I claim copyright 
) Chipmunks out.
Mike
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Mike - thanks - I’ll look-up your draweing. (do you have a link?)
I am considering trying this http://www.kencove.com/fence/Electric+Net+Fencing_detail_NPCW.php
My need for critter barriers/fencing is seasonal. I only need to protect a tree when it has fruit ripening and this netting is portable so thinking it could be moved as needed. Not cheap but looks alot more simple. I am trying to avoid a permanent fence. BTW - I think you own that word…
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The drawing is earlier in this thread. Go back to Feb 2016
This the one I use.
http://www.kencove.com/fence/Electric+Net+Fencing_detail_NR72.php
Mike
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OK- I found your drawing - To be sure I understand your set up - you have a chain-link fence around your garden - I’m assuming 4 ft or 6 ft.height? Then you installed the 28" electric netting at 24" above ground - since the netting comes with it’s own posts - how did you get it to start at that height? without grounding out on the chainlink?
I don’t have an existing fence yet - do you think that the 28" high netting would be effective against squirrels if placed at ground level? or should I go with the 48" height?
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Mike - one more question - then I’ll leave you alone and I do appreciate your experience.
Do you use the posi/neg or the regular netting? Thanks
No need to leave me alone.
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I use the fence with the POS± NEG .
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The 28 inch should be enough. If 28 inch won’t stop it, 48 won’t be do much better.
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See the photo below. I attached wood panels to the fence at the same intervals as the built in posts on the net. The wood acts as an insulator between the electric fence and the chain link fence. BTW, the chain link fence and the chicken wire fence are both vinyl covered which by itself is an insulator.
For those using non-vinyl covered fencing there are spaces that are made specifically to mount electricals to metal fences. See below.
http://www.kencove.com/fence/Backside+T-Post+Insulator_detail_IBS.php
Mike
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Mike - thanks
Wow! you have quite a barrier - triple layer - chain link, chicken wire and electric netting.
Reminds me of the Berlin wall before it fell
I plan on trying the netting first - hoping I won’t have to resort to a full fence or land mines…
More like the $128.00 peach.
From what I see, your project is not far off either.
But, ahhh! … don’t you just love the pleasure when a plan comes together.
Hmm… Maybe an idea for a t.v. series catch phrase in there somewhere.
Sometimes I wonder if I haven’t taken the concept of “millions for defense but not a penny for tribute” too far…
nah!
Mike
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Thanls 
That appears to be exactly what I need. I have possum, armadillo,raccoon, squrriel, and bear. Don’t know if that’ll deter the bear but I’m betting it will the other critters…The Versa Net…
My neighbor with electric fence experience convinced me to try it in order to save what’s left of my peaches.
After trapping and deporting two possums the damage had decreased but I still go out every morning to find one or two fruit gnawed on the tree. Squirrels? Rats? Whatever it is the fence (4 wires, 5 inches apart, starting on the ground with alternating polarity) is not stopping it 
Steve, it would help if you could set up a game camera. It helps not only to know what is getting to your fruit, but how.
Here is a link to the thread of my completed orchard electric fence. Happy with the results, pretty much keeps all the fruit stealing varmints out:
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