Saved by the fence

[rdk]

This morning I saw evidence that a large animal tried to rip apart my Dave type fence cover that I made this fall for my small pond. The weather is so cold that these animals are desperate to get at the fish. The fence held up,, they smashed the netting over the fence. I am going to keep the fence up now year round. Thanks Dave. RDK

 

[koiguy1969]

its a shame that every preditory critter in a 20 mile radius seems to find our ponds. glad to hear tragedy was avioded...

 

[DrDave]

Thanks! My fence/net has kept mine safe for several years now. Before that, I was getting regular losses.

 

[rdk]

The only thing I have to do is to glue the pvc pipes together because that is the part they took apart. RDK

 

[DrDave]

I have so many tie wraps on mine that I didn't bother to glue mine. Glue is better I suppose, I was changing my design so often that I didn't make mine permanent.

 

[koikeepr]

the one positive to not gluing is that you can easily take it apart and store it in the spring. Once you glue it, you're kinda stuck. Can you duck tape it perhaps? Unless you've got a good place to stow it fully put together...

 

[oldmarine]

RDK,

Do you think your visitor might have been a racoon? Here in the city of Tacoma, racoons have regular trap lines that they haunt during the night because people leave pet food outside for their cats or whatever. I unknowly solved the racoon problem in my yard by having a six foot vynal fence installed around my back yard.

If I was to ever move to a location where vynal fence would be too expensive or out of the question, I would consider building caged aviary type structure over and around my pond. That would actually solve several potential problems. It would keep the leaves out, the racoons out, the herons out, and anything else out that could create a disaster in my pond. The structure could be built to resemble a gazebo (sp) so that it would be more eye appealing. The first one I ever saw had exotic birds and tropical looking plants to give it that minature jungle look.

Happy ponding,

Rich

 

[koiguy1969]

i try not to make anything permanent for the simple reason of being able to alter, improve or even repurpose things should the need arise. and if you pull your netting tight enough your pipe joints wont come apart...or instead of glue, drill a small hole and use a self tapping screw in the joints.

 

[rdk]

I am not sure what did this damage. I found some large animal tracks on top of the frozen part of the pond. It could have been a large dog biting the pvc apart. Why would a dog do this? It seems like something racoons would do and I know we have had many the past few years. During the spring ,summer, fall I us animal repellant. With the snow I can't use any of it so I built the fence cover. I can't fence the property. The pond is only 4' by 7' so no problem in storing it. Whatever did this was really strong. RDK

 

[rdk]

Yes I could screw it RDK

 

[DrCase]

Second generation fences are always better....
you find the week link
Glad to here it held the animal back

 

[koikeepr]

i would be surprised if it was a dog. It would have to be something like a coon that would enjoy wet fish at a meal.

 

[rdk]

Could be a large dog walked on the iced pond moved off and latter racoons came in when the snow harden and went to work. The side they went to work on was the side where the water was liquid from the air pump. RDK