FYI I verified the tractor supply one is indeed made by Zareba.
The paltry 1 year warranty concerns me. I may go with the Gallagher and 3 year warranty.
I’m on year 2 with mine and zero problems so far… Hope it lasts a long time. I just need to “shore up” the fence a bit now, prevent coons/whatever from walking beneath that bottom wire…
Cool that’s good to know.
It’s hard to decide.
I was just learning about running ground and hot wires on the fence so that They get a good jolt if they touch both. Also helps apparently when a deep ground rod is not possible (as in my case in shallow soil)
I got one ground rod in the ground about 6’ but a 2nd one some feet away couldn’t get more than a couple of feet. Cut it in half and wired together 3 rods across an area and is working fine. Hot wire a hundred or so feet away reads over 8000 volts. Have seen folks run a ground wire a few inches from a hot wire for purpose you describe… Without that though, just grounded to the “ground”, it still packs a wallop. Ask me how I know…
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Hehehe good deal!!!
Of course the more wires the more cost so hmmm
Amazing…did they eat all of them or just kill them/? I know someone near me that lost all their chickens to a fox.
From what we know they ate max 4 and just killed all the rest, heads bitten off.
We’ve been over the coop with a fine tooth comb and still aren’t sure how they got in but found tracks in the dust on the laying boxes that confirmed raccoons. We’ve killed 4 raccoons and the chickens are settling down and starting to lay again. Put me out of the egg business in 2-3 days.
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Coons and possums have been terrible here this year. I’ve been forced to destroy an inordinate amount of them this season.
The biggest part of the problem is that people from the city and suburban areas catch them in cage traps and release them in the “country”, as if it’s perfectly fine to dump their problem on someone else.
It makes it even harder to catch coons and possums which have already been caught. They become very trap shy.
An electric fence is pretty much out of the question. Too much fence to keep trimmed of weeds. Plus I don’t think my adjacent neighbors would particularly like me putting an electric fence on their side of the fence. Putting up an electric fence with all our gates would be another obstacle.
We lost probably 95% of our fruit due to a late freeze, but in spite of that it’s not unusual to loose 30 fruit per night from coons and possums. One day I counted 80 fruit ripped off trees in one night - half eaten, scratched up etc. Every morning we squish all the fruit which has been knocked off, so I can keep an accurate count of the amount of damage they are causing. That doesn’t even count the damage they do to our sweet corn. They destroy a tremendous amount of food.
I’ve had two different customers tell me they dump coons/possums near me. On Monday of this week, my employee saw someone else releasing a possum within a few miles of the orchard.
I wish people would think of the consequences of dumping wildlife. For some reason they think the wildlife will stay put where they release them, which is an idiotic assumption. Relocated wildlife immediately have to start looking for a new food source. They have 4 legs and can easily travel miles looking for food. In the country, that food source is most likely people’s vegetable and fruit gardens. Or in my case, the orchard.
This season the damage is such a high percentage of my crop, I have spent hours and hours setting traps. I’m forced to use traditional leg hold traps because the animals are trap shy of cage traps. They will eat the bait right to the edge of the cage traps, but won’t enter the cage.
Using traditional leg hold traps is not as humane as cage traps, which is another unintended consequence, of jerks who catch and release wildlife. I’m afraid to use Conibear style traps for fear a dog could get in the orchard, even though I have the orchard fenced.
I currently have 5 trap sets I have to move around to keep them under peach trees which start to ripen. It requires pulling up the five T-posts, dragging all that equipment to the next trees. Pounding the T-posts back in the ground. Re-setting all 10 traps (two traps per set). Rebaiting all the traps. And finally putting the lure on the bait. That doesn’t even count having to re-bait and re-lure the traps every time it rains. It takes a ridiculous amount of time and resources.
@wdingus Your pic of the half eaten apple looks like a coon or possum to me. They eat peaches like that.
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I would like to mention some of the problems we have to deal with as a city/surburban gardener
Shooting wildlife is not allowed.
Electric fence is not allowed.
With a small garbage can to be collected every week, putting bagged dead animals inside will make the whole place stink, and possibly will cause some health problems.
A few months ago when I asked, the pest control companies wanted $175 to dispose of a dead/trapped animal.
When we walk around the city parks in the evening, there are rabbits and squirrels everywhere.
There are opossums, rats, and racoons going around at night.
I can only try to prevent the animals to enter the property. That means putting up fences around the backyard, and some forms of deterrence in the frontyard, low fences or planting hedge, my favorite is rose bush.
We have the live traps and cameras to find the place the animals get in and fix it. There is not much difference if we release it back to a remote place. There are so many animals, removing one and another will come in no time.
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Lead poisoning for raccoons?- sleep seems a pretty steep price to pay. If you can’t use electric fence then grow your trees so trunks start off with at least 4’ branchless trunk and grow them straight, using conduit to stake them to if needed.
Coons can’t climb a trunk if you encircle it with aluminum roof flashing or “stovepipe”. Neither can squirrels, although sometimes the flashing requires grease-oil mix and must be as high as 5.5 feet above the ground, which means removing branches below that point.
Flashing can be stapled right into the trunk.
Coons don’t stop coming and I use traps on my own property and flashing on scores of orchards I manage. Once I get them into a live trap with marshmallows a single pellet to the brain sends them into death-throws and a relatively merciful and quick death. I’ve killed over 30 on my 3 acres in one season.
Not fun, but I’m defending more than fruit and have about 500 nursery trees as well as sweet corn. If I protect my orchard trees the coons tear up my nursery trees.
I also think of my property as a bird sanctuary, and squirrel and coons murder baby birds.
My small backyard electric fence requires frequent checks to keep it clean and working. Your large operation would require so much time I understand why it’s not a viable option for that environment. Raccoons and opossums require a low wire and almost any grass or small limbs will ground it out. I often wonder how people like you can consistently grow fruit and sell for such a low price. Hope you have a good season. Bill
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It doesn’t require a low wire at all. You make a metal fence and than throw a couple of electric wires on it so the coon can’t slip under the electrified wires. Same deal with squirrels. You ground the fence and keep the electrified wires just in front of it. You wouldn’t even need to use a metal fence if the coons had to have their feet on the ground when they touched the hot wire.
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One thing I love about you, Auburn, is you will like a comment even if it contradicts your own.
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I once had a co-worker tell me he had live trapped a groundhog and transported it 2 miles from his home and released it. In a rare show of “fast thinking” I quickly responded that it was unfortunate that they had a 4 mile range, and would be “home” by that night. Shocked look on his face… Was worth the little white lie, I have no idea how far they travel 
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I don’t know about groundhogs, but I used to do some coon hunting in my younger days. We sometimes walked 10 miles at night, keeping up with the dogs.
This website says coons will travel 10 miles looking for food, but once they get established, they mark their territory and stay within their territory, except when looking for mates.
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Yes, the varmint problem in cities…when they get some disease that spreads to humans…will make the problems in Portland Oregon seem minor. Covid-19 is mild compared to some stuff in the world that rats and squirrels can spread. And they brought it on themselves by their restrictions and other behaviours.
I’m going to have to disagree. Coons are extremely tough animals. I would rate them almost as tough as a badger. A coon if left in a leg hole trap too long, will chew it’s foot off to escape. They really don’t have any natural predators around here. Possums too are pretty tough and with the amount I see, don’t seem to have many predators in my area, based upon the huge numbers I see.
If you willing to transport a live coon and release it, why not simply take it out to the country, shoot it in the cage and leave the carcass there for the buzzards and coyotes? All it takes to destroy them is a decent spring cock pellet gun. Hell, I’d have no problem at all with someone throwing a coon or possum carcass on my land vs. releasing live animals to destroy so much food I grow.
The “not in my backyard” attitude is indefensible. How would you like it if someone were dumping live trap shy animals near your backyard orchard?
It’s also inhumane to remove nuisance animals and dump them out of their local habitat. According to the Missouri Conservation Departement:
“Also, a strange animal coming into an established local population of the same species (a strange, disoriented squirrel coming into an established community of squirrels, for example) can upset the local group’s social order and possibly its health. Further, a relocated animal does not know where to find food or other resources and may likely starve to death.”
I may seem a bit forward on this, but I won’t budge an inch on the inappropriateness of nuisance wildlife dumping. It’s not “doing unto others” in terms of how the animal is treated, and not “doing unto others” in terms of how country folks are treated.
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My property is an unintended bird sanctuary. This year the predominant bird is the gray catbird. All my honeyberries, raspberries, blackberries, sour cherries, black currants,gooseberries and mulberries have been eaten by birds. Significant number of peaches, plums and pluouts where damaged. Last year they destroyed more than half my tomatoes so I have to net them.
I also have to deal with squirrels, raccoons, insects and disease.
I know the options amd there are plenty of good ideas on the forum.
I agree with Olpea.
It’s dirty task to dispatch animals but they are MY problem. Don’t bring me your problems. After killing many in the trap, I put up the electric fence.
I’m just about done picking peaches this year and I still haven’t been hit by freeloaders.
Olpea,
As a side note; You were correct I would have plenty of peaches after what looked like a very hard frost hit. Of our three trees, only one had any real number of peaches and most lower in the tree.
I can’t believe how many peaches we have enjoyed and given away. If all threes produce to capacity next year, I will need to get the local food pantry on speed dial!
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I never trap a racoon or opossum. I only heard them on the roof at night and the neighbors saw them. I put the hardware cloth around the corners to stop them from going down the ground of the backyard. Now at night I can hear footsteps going to the corners then turning back, and I see no trace of animals during the day in the backyard, except for the birds. With the hardare cloth on top, the fences around the back yard are about 7 or 8 feet high.
The squirrel population explodes this year. I saw them running across the street whenever I go out the frontyard. I don’t like trapping animals in the intense heat so we open and let them go if we see it closed. We have them closed now. The last few days we have plenty of videos showing birds eating, and squirrels trying to go around the Irish Spring soap to get on the fig tree. They are quite resourceful. The soap has strong smell so they stay only a short time but come back many times. My way to “disturb” them is to go out sometimes, clap my hands and they will run away, It is scorching hot outside so I come back in right away. There are not many eaten fruits on the ground at the end of the day so it does slow them down. I am thinking about putting some roses around the trunk when we can extend the dripping system. Squirrels avoid those bushes because they are very thorny.
We accept the fact that there is no way to stop hungry animals. I just want to stop them from coming in so I don’t have to clean up, and to avoid diseases.
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