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Otter Fencing

George Maltby

George Maltby

Senior Member
Hi Chaps,

I have recently been given permission to stock a small lake near my house with some tench.

However there is an otter in the area. The lake is only going to be fished by myself and three friends from the pub so we cannot spend thousands.
I am thinking parallel electric lines but if anyone has any experience or
suggestions of a cost effective otter deterrent please let me know.
I have downloaded the two EA studies that have been published on the topic.

But I wanted to hear from someone with first hand experience.

Any advice welcome.
 
Hi George,

No specific experience of otter fencing but a fair bit with permanent electric fencing, the only difference is the height and distance between the strands.

A couple of tips:

1. Choose the posts carefully, use pressure treated if you can as they will last longer than dipped. A lot of the dip treated posts on the market these days are not dipped for anywhere long enough to allow the preservative to properly soak-in as the sawmills try and cut costs. If you do decide to buy dipped posts, cut one in half first to see how far the treatment has soaked-in. Don't overlook using used posts, especially if they are over 10 years old and appear in good nick - certain chemicals used in the tanalisation process were banned circa. 2006 (arsenic I think), the old process preserved the timber for much longer. I put some poorly dipped posts in at mine in 2007 - half of them now need replacing :(

2. Give plenty thought to how you will manage the vegetation growing directly underneath the fence, if left uncontrolled the fence will keep shorting out. It may be worth thinking about laying down a strip of black plastic mulch and or wood chip. The alternative is to use glyphosate applied by a knapsack sprayer 2-3 times a year.

Hope that's of some help.

Cheers,

Joe
 
Joe is absolutely right, modern day timber treatment is near useless for ground contact application.
We started using recycled, solid, brown plastic posts.
Nothing to rot and ticks a green box.
Our County council use it for road name signs in east sx.

This plastic is more flexible than wood and does not hold a screw as well as timber but maybe drill and thread wire through ?
Otherwise can be worked like wood,cutting etc
Expect to pay more for this than a timber equivalent.
Try google "Go Plastic" or "Plastrex"

Only timber worth considering IMO are chestnut posts.

I assume otters do eat tench ?
 
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