Reply With QuoteProblem is, we are the apex predator species.
Read the Bible ? Noah and the Ark ? Human culling.Originally Posted by admin
Mother Nature has been culling the Human Race through Famines, Plagues, Extreme Weather ( Cyclones etc ) and Volcanoes.
Mankind has been culling the Population through Wars.
Unfortunately, Mankind is still defying Mother Natures limit and is paying the price.
Problem is, we are the apex predator species.
I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...
So culling feral animals like pigs, cats, foxes, camels etc. that do major damage everywhere they go is animal cruelty huh?
alpha0ne (09-01-20),gulliver (16-01-20),lsemmens (09-01-20),Uncle Fester (09-01-20)
Came up with a couple of soloutions that seem to be working.... so far.
Got an old Ceiling fan and Mounted it upside down on an old ladder. Attached some 2M bamboo tomato stakes on opposite sides which give about a 5m coverage over the top of the line of sunflowers. As one speed of the fan was burnt out and the other speed was too fast, I put it on a PWM controller I built to slow it down to a slow rotation. Not enough to do any damage, hit me in the head and I thought I just stood up in a bush but makes a landing approach for the Cockatoos more difficult than they want to negotiate.
The other setups are using windscreen wiper motors. I mounted these over the scaffolding frame I have the tomatoes tied to. One is direct Drive onto a 3m length of Unistrut mounted horozontally. On the ends I have a couple of my wifes Garden decorations in the form of large wire Dragonfly ornaments. I had that originally on a solar panel and PWM Controller but it was not consistent. Midday in the bright sun the thing was spinning enough to have the neighbor and I more than concerned. In the morning and evening, did nothing. Made up a constant speed regulator and slowed it down to where the thing looks like a radar with a couple of alien creatures going for a ride.
The other one uses the wiper arm setup to make a waving Motion. Couple of Pieces of Unistrut again and the thing is mounted Horizontally. Couple of the dogs old stuffed toys on those. This one is powered by a power supply atm but when I get back home I'll build a pulsing supply from a solar panel for the direct drive setup. Charge up some caps through a resistor till it hits Voltage point then switches to discharge which will give the motor a kick and make for a more erratic function. Will also allow the thing to work in low light in the morning and evening.
Been about a week and what I saw and what the Mrs says it's been keeping the feathered pests away.
I have ordered a sensor board for the water squinter. $7 and I have some old washing machine valves for the water control. Again I think I can solar power this to make location easy as I just need to charge some ( substantial) caps to trigger the solenoid and run a small voltage control board to power the main sensor board. If need be I can always put an 18650 Battery and charger module to power the main board. Main time the pests Invade is early morning and afternoon so have to make sure the systems are active then.
They were getting really cheeky before I put up the deterrents. I thought one king parrot was going to sit on my outstretched arm but took off only when I was a bout a foot away. Guy next door has them crowding his bird baths and feeders where there is plenty of feed but still going after my tomatoes. Wouldn't mind so much if they ate the all instead of destroying so many by only half eating the things. Picked them and put them where they could get them but the bastards aren't interested in doing that so now they get nothing much as I can help it.
how about gluing some old CDs onto the blades ? the birds might be scared away by the flashing reflections?
I tried hanging cds out of the fruit trees about 12 months ago. Didn't semm to deter them much if at all. Maybe spinning would be more effective? Certainly have plenty of them i can use!
CDs spinning or stationary didn't work for me. Also snake or other predators like toys were pretty useless.
Back home after 10 Days away and I am very happy and somewhat surprised really that my twirly contraptions have worked perfectly.
The ceiling fan has well demonstrated it's effectiveness. All the sunflowers under it's extended reach have been untouched. The ones just up the end of the garden only about 3 m away have been ravaged. Proof the fan has worked. Mrs and daughter have come to like the thing. It' looks quite nice spinning slowly. Have to put the thinking cap on and make it more presentable now. I'm also surprised despite the 40mm of rain we have had the thing hasn't tripped the earth leakage breakers I just put in on all the fuses. The Bio pump trips the one it's on regularly but some how the dodgy wiring on the fan which is a couple of acorn connectors with a bit of tape over the top and a power lead hung with the make plug to the bottom hasn't tripped at all.
The wiper motor based setups have also worked perfect although the waving one fell down. Obviously didn't secure that well enough. The Radar rotating version seems to have done the job well though and the tomatoes have remained whole rather than Holed from the birds.
Yesterday there were flocks of screeching Cockatoos around., So many it was a bit errie. Like the scene from a movie before something catastrophic happens. Luckily it was the opposite and we got a mm of rain but the numbers of them around and the noise was incredible. I saw quite a few make sweeping passes and abort landings for go rounds and ended back up in the big tree out the front. No unapproved landings which was great considering the number of approaches and attempts.
I'm thinking now a few of these high mounted up the back on poles might protect the fruit trees as well next summer. Nothing to protect this year, couldn't get enough water in them to do anything more than keep them alive.
Rather pleased this has worked. I'll grab all the wiper motors I can find when I go up next. I grabbed a bunch of fans this time which would probably also work but would be a LOT more difficult to mount anything on. Great for attaching to old solar panels and keeping the shed cool though and even under the verandah.
I'll also see if I can dig up some old computer power supplies so I can put them in the shed and just run low voltage DC to power them all. Tossing up whether to cop out and just go and buy some $10 timers from bunnings or Do it the real mans way and Build something to turn them on in the early morning and off at night. Definitely cost more than buying a timer but somehow not as " Honourable" as DIYing it. :0)
hinekadon (18-01-20)
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