Possible Fox/coyote help

[grngni]

I'm reposting this, which I wrote earlier as a reply, to make it easier to find.
I also have a fox. I also belong to Defenders of Wildlife, so I'm not going to sit out there with a shotgun. Instead, I'd like to know if any of you have heard of or tried a method they promote to keep wolves from livestock that is called Fladry. It's extremely simple and cheap, a factor important to me since I can't afford to electrify our fencing. Apparently, wolf hunters in Europe have used this method for hundreds of years. They take a rope and tie red or orange strips of cloth to it at set intervals. They would then use these as fences to funnel the wolves to where they wanted them because the wolves won't cross this boundary, even when frightened. Defenders has taught ranchers and sheep herders to use this to "fence" in their stock when they can't watch for the predators and apparently it works great. I'm wondering if it might work for foxes. I've written to them to get an opinion. In the meantime, I'm going to take plastic grocery bags (Guess it's good that I occasionally forget my reusable bags!) and loop them onto the fence about 1 foot up. My sister-in-law and I are thinking that better yet, we'll put those obnoxiously loud Sun Chips bags (empty) in the grocery bags. That should scare off anything!
Opinions?

 

[Lbrad7]

I have always heard of people hanging CDs, putting up scarecrows and now colored strips of paper, but I have never heard of any of these things working for any length of time. I think if there is a lull in the predation when these methods are used, it is a total coincidence.

If you want opinions, mine would be that bags and colored strips are a waste of time. I think that wolves, fox, coons and about any predator wouldn't even give them a second look. I am all for nonlethal methods of deterring attacks, but I put more faith in hot wires and good fences than in shiny or colorful objects hung from wires. I think we have to respect the predators intelligence a little more than that.

I hope that I am not coming across as condescending because that is not my intent. I applaude anyone who tries to curb predation by methods that do not harm the predators but in my experience gimmicky methods do not work. I guess it all depends on how much livestock you are willing to lose while experimenting.

Personally I think that you can pay for an electric fence pretty quick with the savings you have in saved livestock.

Good luck to you!

 

[ivan3]

Electric on a small run is not that expensive. ANY passive defense that might dissuade a hungry pred, initially, e.g., radio/light/urinating near coop/bags/tags/etc. will eventually do nothing but make the pred's mouth water (learns to associate with the `KFC' where the meals are served up, at the `lope through' window, alive and screaming).

Are you dealing with imported invasive Red Fox, or native Greys?

 

[ga_goat]

A very inexpencive electric fence can be made up from hardware items ,
a lamp cord with an electric plug on 1 end
a wired in lamp socket any size
stand off insulators and electric fence wire
run 1 side of the lamp cord through the lamp socket , then to the electric fence wire
run the other side of the lamp cord to the standing fence
screw in a bulb ( very low wattage ) 7 to 15 watt would be great
and plug in the lamp cord to any 110 V outlet or drop cord ,,
need more kick ,,, up the bulb wattage
i've used these for years and the 15 watt bulb is enough th run off most anything
and as long as nothing toutches both sides ,,, no shock ,,

 

[grngni]

Hmmmmm, I don't have an electric source anywhere near my pen, but we do have a solar panel and a battery. My husband is thinking about setting that up since we haven't used it with the camper as planned when we got it a couple years ago. I'm not sure why the colored strips work with wolves, but it is a well proven and documented method.