Mini Electric Fence Keeps Mice Out Of Motorhome

Mini Electric Fence Keeps Mice Out Of Motorhome FENCING Fence Systems David Heng Marshalltown Iowa lives in town but during the winter he stores his 35-ft motorhome in an old machine shed about 15 miles away He got tired of dealing with mice that chewed up everything in sight Traps and repellants weren’t the answer so he finally installed a miniature electric fence all the way around the motorhome The fence consists of a 1-ft wide strip of hardware cloth fastened to 1-ft tall wooden dowels inserted into a base made from 2 by 4’s Metal flashing angled outward covers the base A fence charger which runs off a 120-volt outlet in the machine shed charges the fence The hardware cloth connects to the charger’s positive wire and the flashing connects to the negative wire The mouse climbs up the flashing and as soon as it contacts the hardware cloth it gets a big jolt of electricity and dies “It works somewhat like the electric fences that livestock farmers use Nothing gets by it It kills all the mice that try to climb over it instantly ” says Heng “I came up with the idea 2 years ago and haven’t had a single mouse get into our motorhome since A local farmer stores his combine in the shed and there’s always some corn in the head which means there are always a lot of mice around Last fall I found about 10 dead mice next to it ” He says his mini electric fence is much more reliable than traps and repellants “I can’t be driving out 15 miles every day to check on traps and remove dead mice whereas an electric fence is always working as long as you have electricity I think the same idea would work to keep mice out of anything in storage including antique tractors and classic cars ” He started with 50 ft of 2 ft wide 1/4-in hardware cloth and 100 ft of 8-in wide metal flashing He cut the hardware cloth in half to produce 100 ft of fence He laid a series of 10-ft long 2 by 4’s together flat on the shed’s cement floor then nailed them together to form a rectangle around the motorhome He drilled holes about 10 ft apart into the 2 by 4’s inserted a series of 1-ft high dowels in them and then zip tied the hardware cloth to the dowels He stapled the flashing onto the 2 by 4’s bending it over the edge of the boards and then angling it toward the floor To insulate the hardware cloth from the shed’s cement floor he cut a slot in a 5/8-in garden hose and then set the hardware cloth into it There’s about 1/2 in of space between the hardware cloth and flashing so the fence won’t short out “I added flashing because I didn’t know if the shock would be strong enough with just the cement floor as the ground ” says Heng “Also the shed’s floor isn’t level but I can bend the flashing to match the contour of the floor and keep mice from crawling underneath ” He added a ground wire across the top of all the dowels just in case a mouse ever jumps across the flashing to the hardware cloth and tries to climb over the fence “The ground wire is negative and the hardware cloth is positive so when the mouse hits the ground wire he dies ” says Heng The mini electric fence didn’t cost much to build “I paid $59 for the fencer $20 for the hardware cloth and $3 apiece for ten 4-ft long dowels which I cut down My total cost was less than $100 ” says Heng Contact: FARM SHOW Followup David Heng 407 E Southridge Rd Marshalltown Iowa 50158 ph 641 351-4420; dnheng@mchsi com

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