I think what you are talking about is what fruit farmers around here
use to keep crows out of their orchards - primarily cherry. I am not
exactly sure of the technical end of it, but it is a mixture of
calcium carbide and water. Under controlled conditions a few drops of
water on top of calcium carbide produces a flammable gas. ( This gas
used to be used to light houses, miners head lamps and was also used
by raccoon hunters to see at night. ) With the cannon, I am not sure
if the water is added to the carbide or vice versa. A spark ignites
the gas in a confined space and it explodes with a loud bang like a
cannon. These are run on a timer so there are periodic explosions all
day long. As far as how long it works, it works great ---- for the
first few days and then the crows are used to it and they come right
back to eating the fruit again. So the carbide cannon really doesn't
work too well in the long run.

You might also consider if there are any neighbors in hearing
distance. If there are, they might get their own cannon and it would
be filled with a big steel ball, not water, and aimed at your
parent's house. )



On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 20:34:52 -0500, Edward Hua
wrote:

GLenn,

Thanks for the reply. We are toying with the idea of a electric fence.
Also, I'm wondering if you're familiar with something called scarecrow
water cannon? It's supposed to be able to scare off animals, but we have
no experience with it.

Thanks.
-Ed

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, Glenn Lynn wrote:

Without seeing tracks or some other signs of what the critter
might be, my best guess is that your problem is with a raccoon. It
could also be a bear but I believe the damage would be worse than what
you described.

I am sure some animal rights group will be irritated with the
thought of killing the critter, but that is the most positive
solution. A .22 calibre rifle bullet to the head is he least painful
but that means that you must see the culprit. As you suggested,
poision would also work but then you run the risk of killing the
neighbors cat or dog by accident. So the best answer is to keep the
villian away from the fish.

The way I keep raccoon, bear, skunks and opossums away from my
garden, which includes my pond and birdfeeders, is with a fence, Put
a decorative or wire mesh fence around the area. Something as simple
as metal fence post and chicken wire from your builders center would
do. Make it several feet high and keep it tight to the ground. That
will force whatever is getting in to go over the top. About 6" above
the fence put a single strand of electrified barbed wire.

This has worked for me for several years. If you need any help
with hooking up the electric fence, let me know.

Hope this helps,
Glenn Lynn

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 00:58:16 -0500, Edward Hua
wrote:

Hi,

My parents have two fishtanks too large to be placed inside the house,
so they set them up in the backyard. In them they had some 20 different
fish, big and small, that they took care of everyday. But this morning
when they went out to the yard, they found the fishtanks ransacked,
with the fish gone, their body parts scattered on the ground. It
appeared that some wild animal snuck in in the middle of the night, forced
its way through the surrounding flower pots, took off the covering glass on
top of the tanks, and had quite a feast. Since some of these fish my
parents have had for three years, needless to say they were really
heart-broken when they saw the massacre in the morning.

This is not the first time it happened. In the past, there were a
couple of incidents some wild animal (our guess is raccoons) came in at
night, eating our fish, leaving a mess behind. Learning the lesson the
hard way, my parents have put up added defense against such intrusions,
short of killing the intruders with poision (frankly now I'm very tempted
by that idea). But last night topped them all, with but one of the 20
fish barely alive.

So my question is if anybody could suggest a way of preventing this
from happening again. I know people here in New Jersey, bothered by deer
entering their yard, put up electric fences. I wonder if there's anything
like that for fishtanks as well. Also, since my parents live in the
outskirts of Los Angeles (more inland area), their backyard facing the
foot of the hill, does anybody have any idea what kind of animal could be
doing all this damage? Is a raccoon capable of such things? Do they eat
fish?

If you know of another newsgroup that more directly deals with this
kind of questions, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

-Ed