To be honest I was totally confused about hardware cloth when I was told to use it on here. I went every where looking for it, even tractor supply in my area. My neighborhood small store has a hardware section and they asked what I was using it for. I told them for predator proofing a duck pen, he said "oh you want rat wire". I now call it rat wire and everyone knows what I'm talking about.

We call it pop in Va also

There IS plastic fencing sold as "hardware cloth"!  Apparently if it has square openings it's "plastic hardware cloth" and if it has hexagons it's "plastic poultry netting".

 

From the Lowes website:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_157763-13113-751397_0__?productId=3457514&Ntt=hardware+cloth&pl=1&currentURL=&facetInfo=

 

Blue Hawk 36-in x 15-ft Black Hardware Cloth Fencing

 

36-in x 15-ft Black Hardware Cloth Fencing

• Extremely versatile; can be used anywhere conventional metal hardware cloth is used
• Great as tree guards, gutter covers and vegetable garden borders
• For use on balconies and around terraces to prevent objects from falling off

 

This page doesn't even mention that the stuff isn't metal anywhere, but the one I got here from did.  (100% virgin polypropylene material; can be recycled)

The line I've marked in red bugs me!  I haven't personally tried cutting through it, but I imagine sharp claws/teeth could do a pretty quick number on the stuff, so I seriously doubt this claim.  

 

We were actually thinking of getting some of this stuff for the upper half of the daytime "tractor" enclosure since it's lighter and cheaper.  Are there daytime predators that would be likely to break through this stuff more than 3 ft off the ground?  I'm thinking we need protection from possible hawks and to keep the ducks from flying away.  (at least one, hopefully two, are bantam)

 

Christy

Here hardware cloth is sometimes called rabbit wire and chicken wire is also called hex netting. The plastic stuff is called garden fence if its green and snow fence if its orange. Soda is soda except in our house where its called high fructose corn syrup.

 

I completely agree the difference in names per region can make things confusing.
 

Here the feed store calls it welded wire. They have it listed as either 1/4 x 1/4 welded wire or 1/2 x 1/2 welded wire. If you ask for hardware cloth this is what the quote you and sell you though. I have seen the same product labeled as hardware cloth at Lowes (however it is WAY more expensive than the feed store, where I can get it for $.99 a foot). The green stuff they call garden netting or fencing.

 

I can totally understand how dangerous this mis-labeling would be for some folks. They read on here to use hardware cloth, buy what they find at the store, only to have it be some cheap chintzy wire or plastic stuff that won't stop anything. Yikes.

 

Oh, and yes this stuff can be a pain to work with; especially if you buy it in 100' rolls. Once you get to the last several feet it is treacherous to deal with: I end up getting scratched all to heck. Thankfully, my husband has some big offset shears that cut it really easily (they also keep your fingers from getting poked). However, I won't use any other sort of wire on my poultry or waterfowl housing: It is worth the cost and pain to use it.

 

Oh, and on the subject of liquid carbonated refreshments: I am from Ohio and call it pop or soda interchangeably (my mom was from WVa and called it Soda). Anyway, my son's fiance is from Alabama and calls all of it Coke. Talk about confusing.

We're in a pretty densely populated area, so most of what we have are cats & dogs & crows.  We do have a small wood behind our house and I think I saw a fox there once but at a distance and folks have suggested it was probably just a reddish cat.  There IS a neighborhood skunk family, and some big birds that are mostly turkey vultures, but might not all be.  No coyotes.  

 

Do any of those climb, though?  What we have right now is basically a three foot high play-yard made of real wire hardware cloth with a tarp over 2/3 of it, and flimsy deer/bird netting over the rest.  We were hoping to add a taller roof so that we could get in there more easily if we needed to, and thought that starting that high up the faux-hardware-cloth might be adequate for daytime use.  

You don't think it would be?

 

Christy

HA! Tonic? the only type I know of usually goes with Vodka lol and yes that genuine hardware cloth is a real bugger to work... cutting it is a royal pain too.