The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I sometimes wonder if there's a frequency which humans can't hear and which otters can't stand? It could be a good deterrent..
You could have invisible trip beams along the banks, at low level which, as an otter passes through them, would trigger the high frequency and send the otter packing. Just an idea...

FarliesBirthday wrote:I sometimes wonder if there's a frequency which humans can't hear and which otters can't stand? It could be a good deterrent..
You could have invisible trip beams along the banks, at low level which, as an otter passes through them, would trigger the high frequency and send the otter packing. Just an idea...

There probably is but it wouldn't be otter selective and would deter all manner of wildlife I would think.

Snape wrote:

FarliesBirthday wrote:I sometimes wonder if there's a frequency which humans can't hear and which otters can't stand? It could be a good deterrent..
You could have invisible trip beams along the banks, at low level which, as an otter passes through them, would trigger the high frequency and send the otter packing. Just an idea...

There probably is but it wouldn't be otter selective and would deter all manner of wildlife I would think.

It would probably effect other wildlife, but the trip beams, placed thoughtfully and effectively, with otters in mind, would help to limit this, I think. I just believe it's a better outcome than chewed-up carp.

Trip beams wouldn't work FB. They would have to have line of sight from a transmitter to receiver and be close enough to the ground to for an otter to trigger and unless foliage would get in the way unless a strip of land was completely cleared of all plant growth and then kept clear all year.
I do wonder whether some offensive pheromone type smell which humans can't detect might be effective (a bit like lion dung deters domestic cats) but it would need regular application.

This article (from the U.S.) suggests that high pitched deterrents don't work and only relocation and physical barriers work.
http://www.wildlifeanimalcontrol.com/ot ... llent.html

Snape wrote:Trip beams wouldn't work FB. They would have to have line of sight from a transmitter to receiver and be close enough to the ground to for an otter to trigger and unless foliage would get in the way unless a strip of land was completely cleared of all plant growth and then kept clear all year.
I do wonder whether some offensive pheromone type smell which humans can't detect might be effective (a bit like lion dung deters domestic cats) but it would need regular application.

An ex-girlfriend's father was a professor of tropical agriculture, and he prescribed lion dung for a coffee plantation in Kenya, to keep away critters, and it worked... That's what you call a curious blend..
As for a "trip" mechanism for the high frequency - I'm sure that someone could come up with a decent trip, pressure pad, or something...?

Snape wrote:This article (from the U.S.) suggests that high pitched deterrents don't work and only relocation and physical barriers work.
http://www.wildlifeanimalcontrol.com/ot ... llent.html

Ah well, back to the drawing board...

There are badgers, foxes and all sorts of wild life roaming the pool and of course the little people from the secret miniature village deep in the woods.



Unfortunately probably a little too late now as the well known phrase of closing the gate after the horse has bolted springs to mind.

Shaun Harrison wrote:There are badgers, foxes and all sorts of wild life roaming the pool and of course the little people from the secret miniature village deep in the woods.



Unfortunately probably a little too late now as the well known phrase of closing the gate after the horse has bolted springs to mind.

Hmm, yes Shaun, I can see how any trigger, - chemical, electrical or otherwise, could struggle to be selective.

It's there any chance of the otters moving on eventually, - as they apparently did at Redmire and which they certainly did at a local pool I fish, without any human intervention?