Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding keeping bears away from my feeder

Some of you may remember that over a year ago I had trouble with a bear who made off with my native outdoors feeder. Hand feeding seemed like the only alternative but I felt the fish were getting shortchanged. A friend recommended a device called Critter Gitter made by Amtek and it worked extremely well. We still see bears but they give a wide berth to the end of the pond with the feeder protected by this little device. The gitter senses motion (me when I go to the feeder) and gives off a shrill series of beeps and a flashing red light. If the animal comes closer the frequency and flash pattern changes so the wild animals will not get conditioned and ignore the sound. It is also supposed to work on skunks, raccoons, and deer as well. I can attest to bears, deer, and turkeys. The great blue heron stays away from that end as well so it may serve for bird problems also. Two months feeding and no problems yet. More info. can be had at www.amtekpet.com/products.html#crittergitter

PaPond,

Now that's an interesting product...seems like it might have multiple applications for the pond meister. Got to get one!

Thanks for updating us on the bears, too. I've wondered about the "rest of the story" of the bears.

keep us updated have a good many clients with trout water in north GA that battle the bear issue. Only thing that works is electric fence ran off of solar powered battery. NOt cheap if this works will save them some money. thanks

At that price, vs. the price of an electric fence it might be a consideration. Hmmmm.

The guy who recommended this thing to me raises sitka deer and bears were eating both the feed and the young fawns. The way they come into his compound area is over a 8 foot electric fence just behind his feeding area! (where the fence is lowest) The electric fence doesn't seem to phase the bears but this thing does. He set the gitter up to pick up the bears presence when it is at the top of the fence, this allows the deer to feed "under the beam" and not be chased by the device. He's been at this longer than me and he's satisfied with the results.