poultry netting , electric fence

[eggman]

I'm trying to keep deer and squirrels out of my pear trees. My thought was to put up wooden post then tac poultry wire onto the post aand hook up to fence charger. Netting would be 4 inches off the ground. Would it ground out the charger tacing to the post?

[CaliannG]

Yes. If the netting is in direct contact to the post, or the netting is in direct contact with chicken wire, which is in direct contact with the post, the wooden post will ground it out, making it useless.

You can get plastic insulators to hang your netting on, that are nailed to the post.

[dlskidmore]

If it doesn't touch the ground, weeds, or metal, it's insulated from ground. The staple is metal, but it in turn is only connected to wood, right? You may find that the charge is weak just due to the shear number of wires in the net.

I'm not at all clear though how netting 4 inches off the ground is going to do anything to keep out squirrels.

[dlskidmore]

Originally Posted by CaliannG

the wooden post will ground it out, making it useless.

I thought wood was an insulator?

[CaliannG]

It is not a complete insulator when it comes to electric fencing or netting. Just like a small tree seedling can grow up to your electric fence, touch it, and ground the sucker out....the trees and weeds are "grounding" agents, as are wooden posts. In fact, just about everything but plastic will ground out electric fencing and netting.

eggman, get yourself a some of lengths of PVC from the hardware store (super cheap!), cut them in half diagonally, so that you have points on one end, and use them as posts. (You can pound or push them into the ground) Drill holes near the top of them and thread zip-ties through, use the zip-ties to hang your netting. It will cost you less than a $1 per post.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

It would probably work great for deer provided they don't get the inclination to jump over it, or were you wanting to put a little cage around each tree? Use the 2 inch wire rather than the 1 inch, it is lighter to work with, cheaper, and less visually obstructive. Squirrels might figure out that as long as they jump on and jump off (like a power line) that they will not get fried. We built a chicken coop with PVC along the bottom then electrofied the chicken wire to keep toothy critters out, it has worked great, no losses in 3 years.

[Bearfootfarm]

You can use wood posts and "stand-off" insulators.
Here's just one type: