[RFI] Electric fencer, or charged capacitor (Squirrels)

[Ron Rossi]

A buddy of mine had tacked a mesh of hardware cloth to each side of the
roof of his bird feeder newly filled with sunflower seeds, attached that
to the household 120V AC, then sat down on his porch with beer. He told
me the entertainment did not last very long. Within 30 minutes the
squirrels had learned to grab only one side at a time. For the occasions
where they then touched both grids they would no longer jump off.
Resistance is futile.

73 es God Bless de KK1L...Ron Rossi (kk1l at arrl.net) <><
QTH: Jericho, Vermont
My page: http://home.comcast.net/~kk1l

Roger (K8RI) wrote:
> I have a problem with Squirrels and need to discourage them without 
> killing, damaging, or hurting them badly.
> I've though of an electric fencer, but that's a bit pricy for just 
> discouraging squirrels. I could also charge a cap from a small, low 
> current, HV supply and use adhesive backed copper foil around the edges 
> of the feeders.  This will work, but I'm not sure what size cap to use 
> and the supply would need to be simple and RF quiet. 
> 
> I know this works as "in the old days" it was not uncommon for some one 
> to holler, "catch" and too late you'd realize they'd just tossed you a 
> fully charged cap with the "bare" leads taped down the sides. 450 at 40 or 
> 50 mikes, *hurt*! The "old timers" would just step out of the way and 
> watch it go by while the newbies ...er new comers would catch them, at 
> least once or twice.
> 
> My goal is to discourage them without wiping out any of the bands from 
> broadcast through upper TV AND not have my wife have her sense of humor 
> ruined by it when she fills the bird feeders.  We've been fairly 
> successful with variations of height, spacing, mounts...etc...etc... But 
> the more successful we are the more destructive the little buggers 
> become.  So far they've left the coax cables alone.
> 
> I've suggested squirrel stew...<:-)) but they are "out of season" AND 
> more importantly we live in a subdivision, AND even more importantly, my 
> wife says NO!<:-))
> 
> Any suggestions?
> 
> 73
> 
> Roger (K8RI)
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