emceemc
July 17th 05, 03:44 AM
I took several old tomato cages. With wire cutters I cut them up,
twisted them, interlocked them, and anchored them with wire and fishing
line to 4 heavy flagstones. The stones are also set to create crevaces.
My idea was to keep the racoons from sweeping their arms through
the water and herding the fish around. In six weeks I have lost only
one of eight fish.
There is no sign of racoons even coming over to try anymore.
Sitting on metal prongs is too uncomfortable for them and they can't
get at the fish.
The pond doesn't look quite as nice as it used to, but most of
the metal work is below the water line. I've found that the prongs that
protrude have the benefit of becoming bird perches.
Understand that this is just a 50 gallon suburban pond, so the
racoons are blocked from any entry to the water. I'm sure in a bigger
pond they could flush the fish out of the cages and hunt them down.
In other years the racoons were catching them so easily that they
only ate the fish heads and tossed the bodies up into the grass(exactly
like you see bears do during a salmon run). With all the carnage I
nearly gave up on keeping fish at all. I feel like I have an answer. I
hope someone can use it.
twisted them, interlocked them, and anchored them with wire and fishing
line to 4 heavy flagstones. The stones are also set to create crevaces.
My idea was to keep the racoons from sweeping their arms through
the water and herding the fish around. In six weeks I have lost only
one of eight fish.
There is no sign of racoons even coming over to try anymore.
Sitting on metal prongs is too uncomfortable for them and they can't
get at the fish.
The pond doesn't look quite as nice as it used to, but most of
the metal work is below the water line. I've found that the prongs that
protrude have the benefit of becoming bird perches.
Understand that this is just a 50 gallon suburban pond, so the
racoons are blocked from any entry to the water. I'm sure in a bigger
pond they could flush the fish out of the cages and hunt them down.
In other years the racoons were catching them so easily that they
only ate the fish heads and tossed the bodies up into the grass(exactly
like you see bears do during a salmon run). With all the carnage I
nearly gave up on keeping fish at all. I feel like I have an answer. I
hope someone can use it.