Using Electrical Current to Discourage Snakes
From: Cecil Moore - East Texas
Date: 6/24/02
Time: 3:06:40 PM
Comments
I'm a retired Electrical Engineer and when you say you hooked up a charger to discourage snakes, I assume you mean a 12 volt battery charger. You cannot feel 12 volts so a snake also cannot feel 12 volts. Reptiles are less conductive than mammals. I don't know how many volts it takes to discourage a snake but I am thinking around 1000 volts which can be lethal for humans and other mammals. The best bet for an amateur is to use an electric fence transformer which is thousands of volts but very little current and CURRENT IS WHAT KILLS. An electric fence transformer used for cattle and horse electric fences should, in my opinion, discourage snakes if it is configured properly. But I would advise anyone who doesn't fully understand what they are doing, to avoid using electricity for a predator guard. An electric fence for cows and horses depends upon the animal standing on the ground which a snake probably isn't doing. The difference in voltage between the snake's head and tail is what matters. For instance, when the snake tries to crawl from my chain link fence onto my snake guard, he gets enough milliamps of current to throw him back to the ground. I will study this problem in more detail and try to post a solution that everyone can understand. A little technology might help to keep more PMs alive. But unless the system is backed up by a battery, the protection will disappear with every AC power failure.
