Farmers beware. Your cornfields are no longer a safe place. http://kwqc.com/2016/06/22/black-bear-spotted-in-iowa-cornfield/ Strange 'men in black' seen at night on Iowa highways. Do you suppose......? http://kwqc.com/2016/06/21/mysterious-men-in-black-sightings-reported-along-muscatine-co-roadways/
I can surely understand the creepiness of cornfields, with or without black bears or mysterious men in black. When I was a young child, I was lost for what I think were hours in a cornfield. Everyone was planting corn that year so about five acres of my dad's cornfield and an equal distance of my uncle's cornfield separated our houses, so I had decided to take a shortcut through the cornfield to see my cousin. I know I made it across my dad's field because I crossed the fence, but my uncle's field was planted in a different direction and I got lost. I'd like to think that I didn't sit down and cry, but I think I did. Eventually, one of my brothers found me.
I was just reading a story about an 11 year old Iowan boy who had been missing since May. They found his remains Thursday in a corn field. They've yet to determine if he passed away there or somewhere else. I hate to admit it, but I've gotten turned around on my own property in the thick, high growth...and that was only navigating around a pile of debris left from some legacy logging operation. That's when I bought a small GPS and grabbed the coordinates for "Home." I'll be darned if I'm calling 911 because I'm lost in my own yard. Heck, people get lost hiking in the woods all the time because they don't look behind them to see what the return view looks like...it's so easy to get turned around, and the sun is not an accurate reference point (ask me how I know.) I can only imagine being in a corn field, choosing a direction at random and hoping for the best.
I doubt the corn in Iowa would have been tall enough in May that an 11 year old couldn't see over it unless they were exceptionally short. It is, however, very difficult to find one's way around in a mature field. My wife has always been a wizard at finding her way around on roads and highways, but if I take her 100 yards into a forest, she cannot find her way back to the road. She gets totally disoriented.
I wanted to explore my property, so walked down the legacy logging trail left when the prior owner sold off some lumber. I got but so far and there was a pile of wood surrounded by over-my-head growth blocking the way. Figuring I could use the sun as my point of reference, I slugged my way around the pile and got totally disoriented. It's not as though I'm in a national forest, but there is nothing but farms and vacant land surrounding me. Hundreds of acres on all sides. I'd eventually come out somewhere, but even then I'd need to pick a direction to corral myself at the nearest street intersection 2 miles away. So I hacked my way past the pile, got completely turned around, and came upon a small clearing with a logging trail off to my right. "That's odd," I though to myself. "Why would there be another road this size through here?" As it turns out, I was initially headed south, I went past that pile, I walked counter-clockwise 270° until I was headed due west, and that "other" road on my right was actually the one I walked in on! (This is why I use an assumed name here.) There is sort of an upside to it. The nasty overgrown "can't machete your way through it" state of the land is one reason I was able to get it at a price I could afford. Fit for beast, but not for man. That's when I bought one of these and set coordinates for "Home":
Corn Bears: Keeping grizzlies away from agricultural food sources in Montana's Mission Valley. P&C built and tested a new electric fence design to keep grizzly bears away from agricultural food sources, in this case corn.
I don't go any where so as not to get lost, it don't take much for my brain to forget where I was or am, it ain't one of those "senior moments" it is from brain tumor, so I don't press my luck. I guess sooner or later I am not going to remember my son or daughter-in-law don't know what will happen then, maybe nursing home who knows.
I understand losing direction. I grew up in Big Lost River Valley. On the east side is a mountain range, all reaching sea level and above. One in particular, Mt. Mccaleb, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Mount+Mccaleb&atb=v273-1&iax=images&ia=images. Wherever one might be in that part of the valley, Mt.Mc. is always there. Whenever I lose my direction, often enough, I think of the mountain.
That was interesting. I put up an electric fence around my garden, but being only 6' high it does not keep out the deer. I've wondered if I could plant berries and have the fence be sufficient to keep out the bears...it looks like it may. And the wire is cheap enough (only 4¢/foot at Tractor Supply in small homeowner quantities.) They did 3 rows of electrified wiring to keep out the bear and I've done 7, with the bottom row close enough to the ground to keep the rabbits & groundhogs from sliding under. I just wonder how they are able to maintain all that fence line. Once the vegetation grows and touches the bottom row, it shorts the fence to ground and reduces the current. That's a lot of work to keep it operating..
Vegetation around the bottom of a fence won't affect it if you have a strong enough fence charger, connected to a power line. Solar chargers are not strong enough...so far. Three times around a 100 acre square field would take about 25,000 feet of electrified wire. There is approx 14,000 feet of electrified wire on the fence on my property. My charger is rated 100 miles/6 joules, whatever that means. It will knock you out flat on the ground if you touch your head against one of those wires. (Ask me how I know). They sell much stronger chargers at Tractor Supply. It would not take much work to maintain a fence on a flat field with no trees around. The electric charge will stunt most non woody plants that touch it. A bear would not feel it if a furry part rubbed against a wire, but a touch to the head, nose, or a foot and the bear would not forget it. With most animals, it just takes once or twice getting zapped really good, and they won't even try it again.
Now you've got me wondering. As I read about this, the main concern seems to be thick weeds and not grass. I have had the grass grow up to the bottom wire and could hear it arc, but I have no idea how it may have affected the amps going through it. And it did not kill the grass. I put down a weed blocker with mulch over top of it underneath the bottom course, but nature is persistent. I bought mine at Tractor Supply...powered by A/C. I forget what the power rating is. I cannot immediately find the manual and it's too wet for me to walk out and look at it. I know that when I was using a tester on it (hook one end over each wire and stick the probe in the ground) I've shocked myself through it and have been bit, but not flattened. Perhaps the tester attenuated the current. I did have boots on. I may have mentioned before that some folks put peanut butter on a piece of foil and then wrap the foil around one of the wires, just to teach the critters what it's all about.
No deer here, but we have bears and moose. The moose, despite their size can jump about as high as a whitetail. What I have done to my gardens is to have a livestock panel around the garden that is almost 60 inches high topped with three electrified wires. The moose seem to touch the wires curiously then flee when their nose touches the wire. They could probably still get through if they were determined, but there have been no breaches since I have installed this system. I also added a layer of 24" poultry wire to keep out the snowshoe hares when they come around. For my orchards, I ran a livestock 48" wire roll fencing topped with another 48 inches of snow fencing. Again, the moose could certainly get through the fence, but they don't...or at least haven't in the decade or so since I installed this system. I knew people in Pennsylvania who baited their electric fences with apple slices to entice the deer to taste the fence. It seemed to make the deer afraid of the fence AND the apples. My son used to work in bush Alaska for the state, and they had electric fences around all their fish facilities, but the grizzlies would simply walk right through the fences. They tried baiting the fences with bacon strips and it had the same effect on the bears that the apples had on the deer except the sows would teach the cubs about the fence, so the biologists could turn off the fence and the bears still avoided it for several generations at least.