Electric fence

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In seven years, an electric fence prevented the immigration of snails into the garden. Now the snail plague has coming to an end and the fence can finally be turned off.
... but effective, it has been.

Efficient third generation electrical snail fence.

Electric fence

Close up view. The live wire is fixed on top of the insulator. Grounding wire is fixed on the wooden support below the insulator. A four cm wide strip of plastic net is fixed on top the wooden support to reduce the gab below the live wire and force snails to get close to the live wire. The wooden support is buried a few cm to form an effective undercrawling guard.

Item	Qty	Description	Supplier Part No.	Note	Retail DKK
1	1	Energizer > 1 Joule	Harald Nyborg 8409	SM2	999
2	1	Grounding stake; 1,5 m	Harald Nyborg 6150	"T"	84,5
3	1	Fencing wire - live and grounding - 3 mm	Harald Nyborg 4102		39,50,00/250m
4		Fencing stake	Harald Nyborg 3994	Tentor steel	99,50/20 pcs.
5		Support and undercrawling guard, wooden boards 100x16 mm	Bauhaus	Pressure-treated boards	2,95/m
6		Porcelain insulators	Harald Nyborg		99/100 pcs.
7		Insect Net	Bauhaus	Expo-Net Type 209 (100% plast)

Harald Nyborg, A. Jacobsens Vnge 21, Fraugde, DK-5220 Odense S, Denmark. www.harald-nyborg.dk
Bauhaus: http://www.bauhaus-ag.de/

1. Buy wooden boards of approx. 3 m. Fix three porcelain insulators (nylon is not good enough) on each board. One at each end and one in the middle near the edge of the board. Fix a grounding wire on the board and place it under the insulator. Fix a live wire to the insulators. Leave a bit of wire for the assembly of the fence.

2. Clear a 20 cm wide trac for the fence and loosen the soil.

3. Place the boards in the fencing trac with insulators upwards and outwards. Cover a few cm of the lower part of the board with soil in order to make it a perfect undercrawling guard. Place a fencing stake on the wire side of the board. Beat the stake with top of stake flush with top of the board. Screw or clamp the stake close to the board, so it does not comes near the live wire and in good contact with the grounding wire. The stake act as grounding as well as support of the board.

4. Mount a strip of non-conductive plastic net (mosquito net or the like) on top of the boards to narrow the gab under the live wire. The openings in the net must be less than 1 mm. Even large snails are able to force their bodies through a net with 6 mm openings - it may take them half an hour, but they will manage.

5. Twist the bits of wire pulled out from each end of adjoining boards to make an unbroken electrical fence. Connect one open end to the energizer with insulated wire. Draw this wire in an insulating pipe to avoid earthing where buried. Knock down the grounding stake somewhere and connect to energizer with wire.

6. Plug energizer into a wall point.

7. Hand pick slugs within the fence and enjoy life again.