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Electric Badger Fencing
Badger Electric Fencing
Within Britain, badgers are particularly numerous in much of the south-west of England, and also in parts of the south-east and Wales. The Eurasian badger occupies a wide range of habitats. In Britain, numbers are highest in areas where there is a lot of old, well-grazed cattle pasture, but they also occupy mixed and arable farmland, forests, moor lands and coastal habitats such as sand dunes and cliffs. In addition, they also live in urban areas.
The Badger Diet.
A large part of the badger's diet consists of earthworms, Cutworm and grubs which they find in areas of short turf such as cattle pastures. In dry conditions during the summer, or in hard weather in winter, badgers may turn to gardens, Golf greens and fairways as substitute pastures, and excavate numerous holes in them as they dig for earthworms, leatherjackets, cockchafer grubs or other insect larvae. Sometimes the damage can be quite serious, with lengths of turf rolled back like carpets and left looking like giant brown and green Swiss rolls.
There are two methods of badger exclusion and both involve fencing. Firstly there is the conventional high tensile fence. It is highly ornate, involves burying the wire in to prevent badgers digging under and very expensive.
The next solution is to use an appropriate electric fence to give the badgers a sharp, but non-lethal "sting" on the nose if they try to get into a protected area. This can provide value-for-money for ceremonial gardens, putting greens, bowling greens and cricket pitches; for commercial planting schemes/shared allotments; and for large gardens. Electric fencing has been shown to be over 90% effective in excluding badgers in scientifically sanctioned trials.
There are two types of electric fencing applicable to excluding Badgers. These are both available in Kit form
1/. Strained-wire fences.
Strained Wire fences consist of a series of electrified parallel conducting wires at varying heights above the ground. The conducting wires of strained-wire fences can be made from either polythene twine interwoven with steel strands (polywire) or galvanised steel. The steel wire is a better conductor, far more durable and is cheaper but harder to work with. However, galvanised steel fences appear to be more effective than their poly wire counterparts.
2/.Electric netting fence
Electric Netting consists of a woven net of poly twines containing electrical filaments. These are very easy to erect and move, very effective but are more intrusive and require larger energisers. (Rabbit Netting is suitable for Badgers)
If both fence types are maintained properly they are equally effective.
Electric fencing systems are very light and simple to understand so lend themselves comfortably to DIY possibilities.
The strained-wire fence system is constructed of four electrified parallel conducting wires at heights of 10, 15, 20 and 30cm (4, 6, 8 and 12 inches) intervals above the ground. The wires, which are all live, are held by adjustable plastic insulators supported on wooden stakes. A very viable alternative is to use plastic "tread-in" posts similar to those employed in horse yards as they provide both the posts and insulators in one item. The corners and ends are normally more robust wooden posts with insulators applied.
Electric netting fences vary in height and mesh size, and come in 50m rolls fitted with spiked posts at regular intervals and a clip at each end to join rolls together. Pegged guy ropes are also supplied with each roll to support the fences at the ends and at bends. These fences are very easy and quick to erect and dismantle but do require stronger energizers and require more maintenance to keep the vegetation away from the bottom strands.
The electric fence needs to be used between dusk and dawn for at least a few weeks (i.e. until each visiting badger has had a "sting" on the nose). The best guesstimate is that they will remain effective for at least 95% of badgers who have been stung (as exceedingly few like to receive a second sting). This means that after the initial few weeks, you can take the risk that the fence can be left in situ, but left non-electrified during the day and operated at night.
Wire spacing is dictated by the nose height of the badger and this may be anything between 15 - 25cm from the ground depending on breed and sex, with a second wire a similar distance above the first wire. Only 2 wires are normally required to eliminate above 90% of the incursions . The most common height would be about 17cm to get the nose of the animal as he stretches forward to investigate the fence. (See section on baiting)
Electric fences must be powered by a specialised energiser (which gets its power from the 220 v mains or from a 12 v battery). If you use a 12 v battery, you will need to be able to charge this up on a trickle-charger during the day when the charge gets low, the badgers being nocturnal will not be challenging the fence during the day. An alternative is to use a solar panel.
When badgers encountered the fences for the first time their initial response is the same as would be expected for any unfamiliar object. In most instances, badgers approach the fences cautiously before investigating, usually with their noses, which are poorly insulated and highly innervated. Any individual touching an electrified fence with their nose will, therefore, receive a sharp shock and subsequently learn to avoid the area. Badgers are normally inquisitive and do not normally require encouragement but should this be necessary then investigatory behaviour may encouraged and a number of approaches have been used previously to achieve this. These include attaching either Bait Caps unfamiliar objects or food items attached to the fence.
Badgers that have definitely been seen to touch the electrified wires generally responded by retreating immediately to the nearest harbourage. This response was most marked when the badgers concerned touched the electrified wires with their noses. Badgers do not appear overly stressed by the receipt of an electric shock.
The effectiveness of an electric strained-wire fence to exclude badgers (Meles meles) was assessed in a two-year study conducted on commercial farms in the south-west of England. Twelve forage maize (Zea mais) fields, with a history of badger damage, were selected from these farms and the test fence erected at six of them. The remaining six were left un-fenced and acted as controls. The fences were erected prior to cob emergence and remained in place until harvest when estimates of crop damage were made. Fence effectiveness was determined by comparing the amount of damage in the fenced and control fields. Habitat use and ranging behaviour of a sub-sample of badgers were also studied to determine whether they entered fields prior to fence erection and where they went in response to exclusion. Badger welfare, in terms of humaneness, was evaluated by comparing the night-time activity periods of badgers and by monitoring their daytime use of setts. The fence proved an effective barrier to the movement of badgers with damage to plants in the fenced fields representing only 5% of that in the corresponding un-fenced controls (fenced: 24±19 plants damaged/ha; un-fenced: 433±161 plants damaged/ha). Only one badger was observed within the fenced fields with most preferring to forage on pasture, un-fenced forage maize and other cereals following fence erection. Erection of the fences had no detrimental effect upon the length of time badgers were active or on where they rested during the day. The fence design therefore shows considerable potential as an effective and humane method of excluding badgers from field crops and other vulnerable areas.
Majority of the information in the article is from papers on Electric Fencing for badgers.
Badger problems: Use of electric fencing to prevent agricultural damage. Natural England.
Natural England Technical Information Note TIN027
Ministry of Agriculture. Habituation of Badgers to Electric Fencing.