Raccoons vs Electric Fence

[Cfdm10199]

I live in the city and I am suddenly finding raccoons becoming really problematic.
After chewing a hole through my attic roof, using a 2nd floor back porch as their latrine and trapping 2 of them within one week, I decided to go with an electrical wire around the top of my 6ft wooden privacy fence, where i've seen them enter from.

I think they climb up the neighnors 3ft chain link fence, which is butted up against my 6ft fence, and that is why they are coming over the top amd not the bottom.

But, I have a couple of questions snd could use some advice first.

I would need approx 300ft to run one hot wire around the perimeter of my yard, so they won't even get a chance to make it over my fence.

Since I want them to touch both the ground and hot wire at the same time, how close together can or should I run the wires, so I can be sure they will be touching both together?
To increase their chances of getting zapped, can I run 2 hot wires, separated by one ground wire which would run between them, or does each hot wire need it's own ground?

What is the minimum joules/volts I would need to really discourage them?

Finally, for 300 ft of wire, how many grounding rods would I need ?

I've been reading a lot but have no actual experience with electric fences or raccoons.

I used see youtube videos and think how cute they were, but I now realize they are just evil.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TOR]

I live in the city and I am suddenly finding raccoons becoming really problematic.
After chewing a hole through my attic roof, using a 2nd floor back porch as their latrine and trapping 2 of them within one week, I decided to go with an electrical wire around the top of my 6ft wooden privacy fence, where i've seen them enter from.

I think they climb up the neighnors 3ft chain link fence, which is butted up against my 6ft fence, and that is why they are coming over the top amd not the bottom.

But, I have a couple of questions snd could use some advice first.

I would need approx 300ft to run one hot wire around the perimeter of my yard, so they won't even get a chance to make it over my fence.

Since I want them to touch both the ground and hot wire at the same time, how close together can or should I run the wires, so I can be sure they will be touching both together?
To increase their chances of getting zapped, can I run 2 hot wires, separated by one ground wire which would run between them, or does each hot wire need it's own ground?

What is the minimum joules/volts I would need to really discourage them?

Finally, for 300 ft of wire, how many grounding rods would I need ?

I've been reading a lot but have no actual experience with electric fences or raccoons.

I used see youtube videos and think how cute they were, but I now realize they are just evil.

Thanks in advance.

You can goto a electric fencer manufacturer like Zareba or others. Or look up up electric fence guides google is your friend here.

You can run a negative wire like 6 to 4 inches inches from your hot, or you can run 2 hots and a ground. really depends on how you want to design.

The amount of grounding rods will depend on the length of the fence. I use 1 right now, really should be using 2 or 3. A grounding rod can absorb only so much energy ( hard for me to explain) which is why sometimes 2 or 3 grounding rods at 10 feet apart are advised. Better the ground the better the shock.

I use a high mile 100 mile and 125 mile fencers because the fencers put out more joule output more shock than a lower mile fencer. I use my fencer not only for cattle, but I grow acre 1/4 or so sweet corn. I run 1 strand poly tape 4 to 6 inch high from the ground for the corn to keep coon at bay.

Your fencer will have a ground on it so you do not need to run a ground wire by your hot wire, but the animal needs to be grounded to get shocked so in your case The animal may not become grounded because your running your fencing high. Hope this makes sense. So you may need to run a ground wire by the hot.

To make multiple wires hot I run a wire from one wire to another. Cut piece wire wrap one wire good than goto next and wrap or splice. There is connectors for splicing a person can buy. I have used those also.

High impedance fencers have been largely take off the market, also known as weed burners. I have read these fencers can start a fire in dry vegetation. Both my fencers are within 10 years old and are low impedance.

The size you would need to repel coon you would have to look up. I do not know if a small half mile fencer would work.

Also you have neighbors. A kid climbing the fence grab those wires could get knocked to the ground. You may want to check with your town ordnance and see if it is legal.

Your ground wire. the fencer will ground to the grounding rod and you can run a wire from the grounding rod to your ground wire or run a wire from your fencer to ground wire. I would go from the grounding rod. Also watch what gauge wires you use as there is recommendations for that also.

Long winded post, but hope this helps.

good luck

 

[kirkdickinson]

I have plastic coated netting on one of my pens. Found out that the electric wire wasn't doing much good. I had to run a ground wire 4 inches away from the hot so when the coons try to squeeze between them, they get zapped. If your privacy fence is wooden, you will have to run a ground wire near the hot.

I might have gone a little overboard on the charger, but the lower end ones don't have a lot of stored energy. We run cattle too and have had really good luck with the Gallagher chargers over the years. Here is what I have. I tested with a fence tester at 4000 volts. Don't use a regular electrical tester, it will fry it.
https://www.ruralking.com/catalogsearch/result/?&q=electric fence energizer&filter=categoryPath2_uFilter:"Fencing"&rows=24&view=grid&start=24

My pen has chainlink fence so I made sure that also had a ground from the charger directly to the fence. I fabricated my own standout insulators from pvc.

 

[Penpal]

You only need hot wire where the neighbor's fence meets your fence. You could even use a short roll of barbed wire. I might also add some cougar urine.

 

[Cfdm10199]

You can goto a electric fencer manufacturer like Zareba or others. Or look up up electric fence guides google is your friend here.

You can run a negative wire like 6 to 4 inches inches from your hot, or you can run 2 hots and a ground. really depends on how you want to design.

The amount of grounding rods will depend on the length of the fence. I use 1 right now, really should be using 2 or 3. A grounding rod can absorb only so much energy ( hard for me to explain) which is why sometimes 2 or 3 grounding rods at 10 feet apart are advised. Better the ground the better the shock.

I use a high mile 100 mile and 125 mile fencers because the fencers put out more joule output more shock than a lower mile fencer. I use my fencer not only for cattle, but I grow acre 1/4 or so sweet corn. I run 1 strand poly tape 4 to 6 inch high from the ground for the corn to keep coon at bay.

Your fencer will have a ground on it so you do not need to run a ground wire by your hot wire, but the animal needs to be grounded to get shocked so in your case The animal may not become grounded because your running your fencing high. Hope this makes sense. So you may need to run a ground wire by the hot.

To make multiple wires hot I run a wire from one wire to another. Cut piece wire wrap one wire good than goto next and wrap or splice. There is connectors for splicing a person can buy. I have used those also.

High impedance fencers have been largely take off the market, also known as weed burners. I have read these fencers can start a fire in dry vegetation. Both my fencers are within 10 years old and are low impedance.

The size you would need to repel coon you would have to look up. I do not know if a small half mile fencer would work.

Also you have neighbors. A kid climbing the fence grab those wires could get knocked to the ground. You may want to check with your town ordnance and see if it is legal.

Your ground wire. the fencer will ground to the grounding rod and you can run a wire from the grounding rod to your ground wire or run a wire from your fencer to ground wire. I would go from the grounding rod. Also watch what gauge wires you use as there is recommendations for that also.

Long winded post, but hope this helps.

good luck

Thank you. You definitely made things clearer.

 

[Alagirl]

well, chargers are sold by length of wire they support, and the less the load the bigger the bang.
I just bought a cheap unit from TSC to secure my run from py weenie dog. With about 32 feet of plain wire, she let out a pretty good yelp on the 2 mile unit.
I don't want her to harass the chickens after she already killed my first 6 chicks. We all will be happier.

How many grounding rods you need also depends on the type of soil you have.
In a moister retaining one you need fewer, in dry, sandy soil you need more.
And sometimes you need to water the fence line to get a good conductivity going

talk with the neighbor though so no misconceptions arise.