Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management House Sparrow [Weaver Finch] Management

No Spark, this is real.






So was this. A 12 volt battery, and some old school analog technology (yikes, moving parts!?!) and you have a dead bird. Might even incorporate a relay and some old garage door opener components I have lying around, and have the thing become wireless.

It wouldn't feature DNA sampling, however. After sugar season, maybe I'll throw it together and post a vid.

That would be cool spark. Let's see it in action.

I have no beef with birds. It's those darn pesky red squirrels and chipmunks that are causing damage.

My dad shoots them when he can, but think zapping them would be far more effective.

I did forget about using an induction coil in my quick description of a zapper. I built a couple of these units for varmint guards on my deer feeders using a small capacitor and alternating hot/grounded wire bars around the feed slinger. Kind of entertaining to see how far squirrels and raccoons will fly when shocked hard. The high voltage (20k+) will let the shock reach out and penetrate a beak or fur, but it's the amps delivered that will stop the heart.

JKB, are the squirrels chewing through something vital?

I really want to see this bird zapper work.

TJ, we had a flock of pine siskens at the feeder today, one redwing black bird and one morning dove. It is a little early for the redwing and the dove. We also had the usual juncos, bluejays, house sparrows and other stuff. Our resident sharp shin might have got one of the bluejays this morning.

why not add a static camera with modified recognition computer software to remove the emotion on what gets zapped?

They seem to like plastic and rubber for some reason. Hydraulic hose on the FEL was chewed thru. Went to get diesel for the tractor and the can had holes chewed in it. Gas tank on the generator has a hole chewed in it. I thought it may be chipmunks, but esshup said it sounds like red squirrels. I haven't inspected for further squirrel damage, but expect to find some more.

The chipmunks and mice have been the real pests. I've had a lot of stuff stored in this location and they just get into everything. Literally have had thousands in damage from these.

Victor makes some electric pest zappers, so probably go that route.



Reports are they also work with squirrels.

I was talking to a friend of mine and he had a red squirrel chew into his attic. It was just making a mess. He finally trapped it live, then covered the entrance with some plywood. His girlfriend convinced him to release it out back. He said that within an hour or so, that sucker was back in the attic. He trapped it again, then told his girlfriend he was going to take it to a wooded area a ways away and let it go. She was happy, and what she don't know, won't hurt her

Said dude, ya broke a cardinal rule here He said I don't care! That sucker was mean, and I wasn't wasting any more time.

I think the time to dispatch is too long:

Man I would love to have one of those in the jumbo size for coyotes! Not sure how to get them to walk thru it though....don't think baiting would work as they are currently living the good life off the deer here!

The videos are a bit misleading at first. You think that initial zap is what kills them. Well, it just stuns them, it's still pumping juice for 2 more minutes. If you took that rat out right after the zap, it could possibly recover and walk away.

Hmm, surprised I missed this thread. High Voltage was a specialty of mine since I was a kid. In order to safely and humanely kill a bird, you would need to charge up a HV capacitor of at least 1uF to 20KV. You need quick instantaneous power to stop the heart and nervous system. The vidoes are showing this done wrong as they are just cooking the victim.

You can accomplish this using a microwave transformer and rectifier diode plus storage capacitor. Not quite as high voltage, but still plenty. Best is to use a old TV horizontal transformer, oscillator, and rectifier.

The other problem is directing the current through the heart and preferably the brain too. Zap the brain and there is no suffering. So, wire at head level while feeding, screen mesh for feet.
If properly done, the horror will be the feet would be blown clean off. The bird will never feel a thing since it will just stop everything.

Horribly dangerous as all heck though. It will easily kill you too, so not the best solution.

Best solution? Stop using bird feed and the bird feeder, and start a seed plot with wildflowers instead. When I stop feeding, those nasty little buggers go away. I stop feeding in early spring so my bluebirds have a leg up And the house sparrows leave. I now only feed when there is snow cover or ice.

Pretty interesting if you read the patents for these devices, and they go back to 1908. I didn't read all of them, but the zapper in the video references the 1908 patent. It also claimed the rights to a patent by someone else that expired in the 70's. You don't pay, your patent is up for grabs. Patents are pretty boring to read after a while due to legal phrasing. Just get to the point!

Anyway, the device measures resistance of the rodent thru the conductors. Once this is confirmed, it fires a 7500V shot that goes thru a PTO (Pulse Train Output) for specific duration and dwell.

Essentially, the rat is getting zapped, not continuous, but in the 2 minutes, it's getting zapped over 28,000 times. Stopping the heart also depends where the heart is in it's beat cycle. I guess pounding it this way, kinda insures you're gonna poke it correctly.

MSD ignition system comes to mind

What, no magneto? (vs. MDS)

Forgot about that. Silly me