I have two of those small round 35 gallon pre-formed ponds from Home Depot:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bec...
I had them stocked with several different waterlilies and a few other water plants. I also had minnows (mosquito fish) in the ponds. And because they breed so much, I probably had two hundred fish in each pond. They don't get that large. Probably about 3-4". They eat the mosquito larvae and other bugs and the plants seemed to thrive from their waste. So everything was doing beautifully!
Well, I've been using these two little ponds for years and the most annoying thing to happen was the tadpole population which actually eats my waterlily leaves. But this year it had not been a problem so far. Unfortunately .... much to my horror ...
Low and behold ... raccoons ...after all these years ... have found the ponds (probably due to the fish) and destroyed everything in both ponds and ate all but about 50 fish that I managed to net and put into a holding container until I can figure out a way to protect them and any new waterlilies being returned to the ponds.
So here is my question ...
Has anyone here ever used a wire cover at night? I was thinking of making two wire covers that are the shape (round) and diameter of the top of each pond. I was thinking of using Galvanized Poultry Netting/chicken wire with 1" squares perhaps. I had thought of using 4 rebar poles in the ground around each pond to use to attached the wire cover to keep the raccoons from lifting up these covers. I know raccoons are smart and resourceful. I could even slide a concrete block down each pole to rest on top of the cover and the lip of the pond to further deterred the raccoons from lifting the wire cover.
Wire netting:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/YAR...
Or would hardware cloth work?
http://www.homedepot.com/p/YAR...
or this hardware cloth:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/YAR...
I am not sure how strong the wire needs to be to keep the raccoons from trying to chew or tear through the mesh and how small the wire holes should be to keep the raccoons from trying to stick their paws through to grab any fish or waterlily leaves.
I don't want to use an electric fence around the pond. I have small grandchildren and a dog that would get zapped. Also lots of small wild birds that drink from those ponds.
The scarecrow sprayer sounds good, but I've talked to others locally and they said sometimes the raccoons start ignoring the sprayer. So it doesn't always solve the problem. So that I why I am thinking about an evening cover for the pond since the raccoons only show up at night. I would leave the pond uncovered during the day.
I have a 6' vinyl privacy fence around my backyard. This probably kept them out of my yard for years. But somehow they've found a way in. Probably climbing from tree to tree. I don't know too many fences that are successful in keeping out critters that climb.
So .... Has anyone ever tried a wire mesh pond cover? If so, did it work?
Any other ideas to keep the pond plants and fish safe from the raccoons?
