electrical wiring to keep bears out

[Demovictory9]

Across the Tahoe Truckee region, a new trend in home design has become more popular in recent years. Door by door, window by window, pairs of wires are strung between brackets and hang across the threshold. On the front door, a yellow sign hangs with a warning about an electric voltage.

Electric wires like these give bears just enough of a shock to make the bears not want to come back or try to break into the house.

A decade ago, the electric wires were nonexistent. But now, in some Tahoe neighborhoods, the vast majority of homes are outfitted with them. The wires serve a very practical purpose: They prevent bears from breaking into homes.

Ryan Welch, who is the founder of Tahoe Bear Busters, is so busy installing electric wires on homes in Tahoe that he’s been booked solid for months. He’s been turning away work since September, because he was booked all the way through December. Now, he’s finishing up the last of his projects before winter arrives.

In the 10 years that Welch has been doing this work, he’s outfitted about thousands of homes with bear security systems, using the electric wires that he designed. The technology comes from electric fencing often used on farms or ranches to keep animals in.

Welch’s goal is the opposite. He wants to keep bears out. His method works.

https://www.sfgate.com/renotahoe/article/From-umbrellas-to-electric-fences-the-weird-16670052.php

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Seems like a good sign, that bears may be thriving. . . .nt

[Throck]

2. Properly installed systems are non lethal.

But will scare the shit out of you.

Don't ask.

[MineralMan]

3. So, how do people use those doors, I wonder?

[Silent3]

4. Just guessing, from the way it looks...

...that you turn off the power from inside the house, then unhook the wires. The wiring looks a bit like bungee cords to me, with hooks that can easily be removed from the power terminals.

That would be a pain in the ass procedure undoing and redoing the wiring every time you went through a door, however.

[MineralMan]

5. Probably. I suspect those would be installed

on doors that got used only rarely. Otherwise, it would be a real PITA.

[taxi]

6. The men don't use the door.

They step over the fence and go in through the upstairs window.

[MineralMan]

7. LOL!